•'^.s^jjygv 



'y^mm;; 



FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 

President of the Constitutional Convention and delegate from the State of Virginia. 
From the painting by Stuart, rescued by " Dolly " Madison. (See page 405.) 



FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 




1. NICHOLAS GILMAN, New Hampshire 7. OLIVER ELLSWORTH, Connecticut 

2. JOHN LANGDON, New Hampsiiire 8. WM. SAMUEL JOHNSON, Connecticut 

3. ELBRIDGE GERRY, Massachusetts 9. ROGER SHERMAN, Connecticut 

4. NATHANIEL GORHAM, Massachusetts 10. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, New York 

5. RUFUS KING, Massachusetts 11. JOHN LANSING, New York 

6. CALEB STRONG, Massachusetts 12. JONATHAN DAYTON, New Jersey 



FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 




1. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, New Jersey 

2. WILLIAM PATERSON, New Jersey 

3. GEORGE CLYMER, Pennsylvania 

4. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Pennsylvania 

5. JARED INGERSOLL, Pennsylvania 

6. THOMAS MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania 



7. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, Pennsylvania 

8. ROBERT MORRIS, Pennsylvania 

9. JAMES WILSON, Pennsylvania 

10. RICHARD BASSETT, Delaware 

11. GUNNING BEDFORD, JR., Delaware 

12. JOHN DICKINSON, Delaware 



FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 




1. GEORGE READ, Delaware 

2. DANIEL CARROLL, Maryland 

3. DANIEL of ST. THOMAS JENIFER, Maryland 

4. LUTHER MARTIN, Maryland 

5. JAMES McHENRY, Maryland 

6. JOHN FRANCIS MERCER, Maryland 



7. JOHN BLAIR, Virsinia 

8. JAMES MADISON, Virginia 

9. GEORGE MASON. Virginia 

10. JAMES McCLURG, Virginia 

11. EDMUND RANDOLPH, Virginia 

12. GEORGE WYTHE. Virginia 



FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 




]. WILLIAM BLOUNT, N.C. 

2 WILLLAM RICHARDSON DAVIE, N.C, 

3. ALEXANDER MARTIN, N. C. 

4. RICHARD DOBBS SPAIGHT, N. C. 

5. HUC.H WILLIAMSON, N. C. 

6. PIERCE BUl'LER.S. C. 



7. CHARLES PINCKNEY, S. C. 

s. CHAS. COTESWORTH PINCRNEV.S. C 

9. JOHN RUTLEDCiE, S. C. 
10 ABRAHAM BALDWIN, Georgia 
n. WILLIAM FEW, Georgia 
12. WILLIAM PIERCE, Georgia 



THE CONSTITUTION 

AND 

ITS FRAMERS 



THE CONSTITUTION 

AND 

ITS KRAMERS 



BY 

NANNIE McCORMICK COLEMAN 



CHICAGO 
THE PROGRESS COMPANY 

1910 



-'!! 



1 



«/^ 



FIRST EDITION. 

COPYRIGHT 1904, 

By SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO. 



SECOND EDITION. 

COPYRIGHT 1910, 

By THE PROGRESS COMPANY 



P. P. PETTIBONB & CO. 

PBINTBR AND BINDEBS 

CHICAGO, ILL. 



C:n!,A^5 94i5 



INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS 



Framers of the Constitution Frontispiece 

Signing of the Contract on the Mayflower Page 3 

Signing the Declaration of Independence - - " 51 

Signers of the Declaration of Independence " 131 

Washington Resigning His Commission - - - " sjq 

Carpenters' Hall " s^S 

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis " 451 

Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the 

United States " 531 

Presidents of the United States " 579 



DEDICATED TO 

AMEKICA'S POTENT AGENCY 

FOE THE 

PEOMOTION OF AN INFORMED PATRIOTISM 

THE DAUGHTERS 

OP THE 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



"In proportion as the structure of a gov- 
ernment gives force to public opinion, it is 
essential that public opinion should be en- 
lightened. ' ' 

Washington's Farewell Address. 

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and 
free, in a state of civilization, it expects 
what never was and never will be. 

"Educate and inform the whole mass of 
the people." 

ThoAias Jefferson. 



PREFACE 

(Second Edition.) 

Says the great Historian, John Fiske, — ' ' One of the lessons 
which history inculcates with strongest and most reiterated 
emphasis is this, that by no conceivable ingenuity of legisla- 
.tion or vehemence of proclamation can you ever make a sound 
society out of unsound individuals." 

To make a sound society out of the people of this Nation 
no agency equals that of an intimate acquaintance with the 
causes that led to its founding, the objects for which it was 
founded, the lives of the men who founded it, and the Consti- 
tution under which it came into an existence promising a 
glorious permanence. 

Such acquaintance is certain to develop and perpetuate an 
informed, intelligent patriotism that will be the bulwark of the 
Nation's safety, the rights of its States, and the liberties of its 
people. 

The principal purpose of this book, the product of home 
evenings, is to collate in a single volume, suitable for ready ref- 
erence and frequent study, the epoch-making state papers of 
this country, their history and development, and especially the 
chief events in the careers of the men who framed them, (with 
all of which every American should be familiar), that such 
acquaintance may be easily made and maintained. 

The brief glance given our history may serve as a partial 
compendium showing the evolutions of our nationality, and of 
the fundamental law under which we live. Its brevity may 
induce its reading and prompt to further historical study, 
thereby spreading the knowledge of how we became the nation 
that we are, and disseminating more widely an understanding 



vi PEEFACE 

of the rights of the people under the Constitution of the United 
States. 

Every American thus informed, whether native or nat- 
uralized, must be impressed with his obligation to bless the 
God in whose devotion and under whose guidance this nation 
was founded and has been directed. He cannot fail to be 
devoutly thankful that this is, and promises to be, the lasting 
government of a free people. Nor can he escape the realiza- 
tion that the supreme duty of self-interest, as well as of patriot- 
ism, is to obey and support this constitution. 

If this effort aids^, however incompletely, toward these ends, 
it will be richly rewarded. 

To many of the Secretaries and members of the Historical 
Societies of the original thirteen states, and to my husband, 
whose constant encouragement and assistance have made this 
book possible, I record my grateful appreciation. 

Nannie McCormick Coleman. 
Chicago, Illinois, November, 1909. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
Constitutional Law page 

Its fundamental nature — Its supremacy over all other law 1 

CHAPTER II 

Colonial Governments 

The providential plan of a century and a half of legislative experience 
preparing for the establishment of constitutional government — 
The charters as constitutions — Despotism of the English governors 
— Compact of the Pilgrims — The beginning and progress of legis- 
lation in the several colonies 3 

CHAPTER III 

Colonial Wars 

Inuring the colonists to the hardships of battle; educating them in 
military discipline and preparing their leaders; making them 
acquainted; teaching the power of unity; preparing them for the 
Revolution's struggle, and a united government — Alienation of 
Canada in consequence of long hostility and England's action when 
peace was restored and Canada acquired 13 

CHAPTER IV 

Summary of Government 

Royal, proprietary and charter governments — Legislatures modeled after 
the English method — But little actual power in, but great educa- 
tional value of, these legislatures — The isolation of the colonies — 
The local attachments and oppressions of the central authority that 
made the sentiment of state supremacy hereditary, a central govern- 
ment dreaded, and the establishment of a national authority under 

a national constitution so difficult of accomplishment 17 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTEE V 

Eeligion and Education page 

The early prevalence of a profound religious sentiment — The Bible of 
universal reading and reverence — The foundation of schools and 
colleges in the several colonies — Eemarkable extent of culture and 
fostering of schools in primitive communities 21 

CHAPTEE VI 

Efforts for Union 

First, solely for common defense — The approach of settlements creating 
the need for a central, supreme authority to adjust disputes — The 
common oppressions of England a common cause for united 
action — The various conventions leading up to the final consti- 
tutional union 27 

CHAPTEE VII 

Causes of the Eevolution 

Not merely taxation without representation, but interference with local 
legislation, and the annihilation of Colonial trade, commerce, and 
manufacturing development 33 

CHAPTEE VIII 

Eeview 

The Christian culture of every race in search of liberty of conscience 
contributing to found and form our government — Their antecedents 
and experience as educators of the idea of state supremacy — Com- 
parison of conditions then and now 



36 



CHAPTEE IX 

The Continental Congress — The Declaration of Independence 

It convened as a peace congress — Independence not desired or in- 
tended — Driven to revolution — Narrowness of vote for independ- 
ence — The presidents of the Congress 40 

CHAPTEE X 

/ Brief Biographical Sketches of the Signers of the Declaration 

of Independence ^^ 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XI 

The Confederation page 

The headless government, destitute of executive, judicial, and taxing 
powers; the rope of sand whose inefficiency taught the absolute 
need of an authoritative, permanent, and supreme power — A na- 
tional government — A natural and necessary part of constitutional 
evolution 208 

CHAPTER XII 

The Revolution 

Not the province of this book to treat of, though a hallowed memory 

with the American people 214 

CHAPTER XIII J 

George Washington 

The statesman whose purity and goodness have made us overlook his 

matchless ability in constructive statesmanship 216 

CHAPTER XrV 

The Battle for the Constitution ^ 

Condition of the country after accomplishing independence — The tend- 
ency of the ages — Comments of Washington — The prejudices to 
overcome — The needs of commerce opening the way for educating 
public opinion to the actual need of a national government — The 
two calls for the convention — The opposition of congress — Part of 
Washington and Franklin — The contest in the different states — 
The victory 222 

CHAPTER XV > 

The Feamers of the Constitution 

Brief biographical sketch of every member who participated in the 
couA'ention — Their high grade of scholarship — Their distinguished 
positions 249 

CHAPTER XVI 

The Constitution of the United States 

Discussion of the constitution and amendments thereto, section by 

section 476 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTEE XVII 

The President's Cabinet page 

Its growth in importance — The duties and field of labor of the different 

departments 550 

CHAPTEE XVIII 

Conclusion 

The gradations of our government — Its complex and composite char- 
acter — Need of return to state supremacy in state affairs — The 
final unification of our whole people under unquestioned national 
supremacy 556 

APPENDIX 
Declaration of Independence — Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union between the States — Washington's Letter to the Governors 
of the Thirteen States on Eesigning as Commander-in-Chief: the 
Argument for and Basis of the Constitution — Constitution of the 
United States — Washington's Farewell Address to the People of 

the United States .- 566 

Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries of State, Chief Justices 615 

Dates and place of birth ; fathers, mothers and wives of the Presidents. . 616 
Ancestry, religion, College, vocation, ages at time of inauguration, 

dates and places of death and burial of the Presidents 617 

Origin of the names of the states and territories; Capitals; Mottos; 
Nicknames; Flowers; Area; Population in 1900; settled and by 

whom 618-623 

Growth in area and population, and acquisition of territory by the 

United States 624 

Dates of ratification of the Constitution by the original thirteen states 

and votes thereon; admission of subsequent states into the Union. . 625 

Members of the Presidents' Cabinets from 1789 to 1909 626-628 

Presidents pro tem. of the Senate from 1789 to 1909 628-629 

Speakers of the House of Eepresentatives from 1789 to 1909 629-630 

National Anthems: My Country, 'Tis of Thee; The Star Spangled 

Banner 631-632 

Index 633 



THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 




CHAPTER I 

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 

[F all human laws, constitutional law is the highest. 

It is above congress, the courts, the president, even 

the people themselves. 

The constitution is the fundamental law which 
fixes and determines the form of government that exists under 
it; defines and limits the powers of that government, and 
directs its executive, legislative, and judicial maintenance and 
action. 

The government and all its branches, deriving power and 
authority solely from the constitution, can only do what that 
constitution gives authority to do. Even if all the people 
desired it, the government could not do what is contrary to the 
constitution. The will of the people is supreme only when 
expressed as the constitution prescribes. The people can 
change that constitution in whole or part, but only in the way 
that the constitution itself provides. Any law enacted by the 
national congress, or by a state legislature, contrary to the 
national or the state constitution, is absolutely void — has no 
effect or authority. 

This does not mean that the citizen can refuse to obey it — 
that the citizen can, for himself, decide the constitutionality 
of a law. But it does mean that he can appeal to the proper 
tribunal — to the courts — to decide if the law be constitutional, 
and it is the province of the courts to pass upon that question, 
and to decide whether or not the law is constitutional and to 
be obeyed. In the proper way, the constitutional way, one 

1 



2 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

must seek to have unconstitutional laws held null and void, 
and be discharged from the obligation to obey them. It is 
neither for the individual nor for a body of individuals, 
whether the latter be an elected legislature or a voluntary as- 
sembly, to decide these questions. 

Wise politicians know that any breach of the fundamental 
laws, even though dictated by necessity, impairs that sacred 
reverence which ought to be maintained in the breast of rulers 
towards the constitution of a country, and forms a precedent 
for other breaches, where the plea of necessity does not exist 
at all, or is less urgent and palpable.^ 

Necessity, especially in politics, often occasions false hopes, 
false reasonings, and a system of measures correspondingly 
erroneous.^ 

To attack the constitution of a state, and to violate its rules, 
is a capital crime against the nation, and if those guilty of it 
are entrusted with authority, they add to their crime a perfid- 
ious abuse of their trust. The nation ought to constantly 
repress all violations of the constitution with the utmost vigor 
and vigilance.^ 

This supr,emje4a-w-x)£Jiiunan enactment is of too serious and 
solemn a nature to permit of frequent change. It should be 
held in reverence, and any proposed change should be long and 
thoroughly discussed before being made. Although delay may 
thwart temporary convenience, still it may afterwards turn out 
to be the best protection from hasty action that would have 
borne only a harvest of regrets. Once the constitution becomes 
the subject of frequent change, public reverence for it ceases, 
uncertainty of the interpretation that may be given the new 
provisions confuses, and instability of government is wrought. 

^The Federalist, No. 25. 
''The Federalist, No. 35. 
^Vattel Law of Nations, Volume I, Sections 29-30. 




CHAPTER .II 

COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS 

fHE history of the American people, as they were led 
up to the formation of the Union and the adoption 
of the constitution of the United States, evidences a 
providential preparation for the exalted and ar- 
duous duties of the founders and citizens of a free republic. 

For more than a century and a half, representative legis- 
latures in some of the colonies, and the people themselves in 
others, had been educating the colonists in the exercise of leg- 
islation, and fitting the people of all the future states for the 
functions of citizenship, and the administration of governments 
of the people, by the people, and for the people. Not as novices, 
but as men drilled in the use of the elective franchise, skilled 
in the enactment of laws to govern themselves and familiar 
with judicial proceedings interpreting and applying those 
laws, did our fathers launch our Ship of State. Nor was long 
experience in frontier warfare lacking to familiarize them 
with the fields whereon the struggle was to be waged, and 
to fit them for the dread vicissitudes of the many battles in 
which they staked their lives — their all — for the rights of 
freemen. 

The English colonization of this country began under char- 
ters from the Crown. These charters were the written grants, 
or authority, to English citizens to colonize and develop Eng- 
lish territory. They were solemn documentary enumerations 
of the rights of those to whom they were granted, and occupied 
the same place with the colonists that the present constitution 
does with the citizens. The colonists, in addition to possessing 
the rights specifically stated in these charters, being English 
subjects on English soil, claimed and were clearly entitled to 
all the rights of residents and citizens of the home domain. 

3 



4 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

The violation by the king and parliament of these rights, 
established by law, by precedent and by express grant in the 
charters, became the foundation of the complaints of the col- 
onists for redress, and thus the fundamental cause of the 
revolution that cost Great Britain this country and resulted 
in the establishment of our republican government. 

The first colony, Virginia, was established under a charter 
to the London Company. Its territory was supposed to cover 
from the Potomac to the mouth of the Cape Fear river, or 
just south of Columbia, South Carolina, and west to a supposed 
and unknown ocean. It was governed by a council residing in 
England, appointed by the king and responsible to him, though 
its charter, in express terms, accorded to the colonists all the 
rights and privileges of English citizens. The governors sent 
out by this council were responsible to it, and exercised the 
most despotic power. 

In 1619 Sir George Yeardley was sent out as governor, 
with instructions to summon a general assembly, or legislature, 
to be elected by the freemen of Virginia. The colony then con- 
sisted of eleven plantations, or settlements, each of which sent 
two representatives, called burgesses, and their body was 
^ called the House of Burgesses. On Friday, July 30, 1619, in 
the church at Jamestown, this first legislature of America con- 
vened, and, though often interrupted, it was never abolished 
nor prohibited. The council also promulgated a written con- 
stitution modeled after the unwritten constitution of England, 
which served its purpose in the formation and drafting of the 
subsequent constitutions of the states. 

The colony was mainly controlled by the Cavaliers who set- 
tled there and owned the lands. They believed that the coun- 
try should be governed by the people of property and position, 
and to that extent followed the aristocratic theory of the 
mother country. The Governor, owing no responsibility to 
them, and appointed, empowered, and paid by the foreign 
council, taught them to dread the tyranny of a supreme eon- 



COLONIAL GOVEENMENTS 5 

trol beyond their own selection, which was under no obligation 
to look to them for either support or continuance. 

One of these governors, Lord Delaware, was empowered to 
rule by military law, and was given the authority to hang 
without trial or the intervention of a jury whomsoever he 
should condemn. Governor Dale silenced his critics by boring 
holes in their tongues. Governor Berkeley uttered his own 
epitaph of infamy in: "I thank God there are no free schools 
nor printing presses here, and I hope we shall not have them 
these hundred years. God keep us from both." He gave as 
the ground of his sentiment that education made the common 
people discontented and rebellious. "When what is known as 
the "Bacon Eebellion" was overthrown, and one of its leaders, 
a Mr. Drummond, was captured, Governor Berkeley said to 
him: *'Mr. Drummond, you are very welcome. I am more 
glad to see you than any man in Virginia. Mr. Drummond, 
you shall be hanged in half an hour." And hanged he was. 
This worthy for sixteen years refused to call or permit the 
election of an assembly, but, with one subservient to his will, 
tyrannized over the colony. Of him Charles II. was provoked 
into saying: ''That old fool has hung more men in that naked 
country than I did for the murder of my father." This dis- 
solute king gave the entire province to two of his courtiers, 
and for thirty-one years the colonists struggled to regain their 
chartered rights before they succeeded. 

New York was settled by the Dutch, The charters granted 
by the Dutch West India Company to the proprietors, who were 
called patroons, gave them absolute authority over every settler 
within the patroon's domain. Peter Stuyvesant, the last of 
the Dutch governors, in reply to the demand of the people to 
the elect representatives to make laws for their government, 
said: "If citizens elected their own officers, the thief would 
vote for a thief, the smuggler for a smuggler." 

In 1653 the first convention, or legislature, w^as organized 
in New York. In 1683, the first under English rule was estab- 
lished. This was to meet once in every three years. Every 



6 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

freeholder was an elector, and freedom of conscience a^d re- 
ligion was guaranteed. 

The "Pilgrim Fathers" were Puritans who had left Eng- 
land for Holland, and got permission from the London Com- 
pany to locate in their domain. They landed at Plymouth, 
December 21, 1620, and became known as the Plymouth Colony. 
They could get no charter, and in lieu thereof, during the voy- 
age of the Mayflower, prepared a system of government by a 
Avritten agreement, which was signed by John Carver, William 
Bradford, Edward Winslow, William Brewster, Miles Standish, 
John Alclen, and thirty-five others, as follows : 

**In the name of God, Amen, we whose names are under- 
written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord. King 
James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and 
Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken, 
for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian 
faith, and the honour of our king and country, a voyage to 
plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by 
these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God 
and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into 
a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, 
and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, 
do enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, 
ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, 
as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general 
good of the colony; under which we promise all due submis- 
sion and obedience." 

Under this compact, the first individual agreement of gov- 
ernment known, they elected a governor and one assistant. 
As population grew the assistants were increased to seven, 
until, in 1638, the representative system was adopted. Every 
freeman who was of their church was a voter. 

The Puritans, at that time, constituted a strong political 
party in England, and numbered among them people of wealth, 
influence, and education. From this class of Puritans the 
colony of Massachusetts Bay was sent out in 1630, under a 



COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS 7 

charter from the king, which allowed the colonists to elect 
from their number a governor, deputy governor and eighteen 
assistants. These had full legislative authority, except that 
no laws could be passed contrary to the laws of England. 

The Massachusetts Bay colonists inaugurated the most thor- 
oughly democratic government known among the colonies. All 
laws were passed upon by direct vote of the people, but to be 
a voter one had to be a church member, and of the Puritans' 
religious profession. They were a high spirited people, much 
more independent, financially, than most of the settlers, and 
were a thorn in the flesh of the king from the start. Their 
settlement was begun at Salem, and has never lost its char- 
acter for assertive independence. 

New Hampshire came into possession of John Mason, as pro- 
prietor, under grant from the council for New England in 
1629 ; was, by action of its people, returned to the government 
of Massachusetts in 1641 ; against their will, at the instance of 
the heirs of Mason, became a royal province in 1680; was again 
returned to Massachusetts ; was again separated as a royal 
province in 1741, and so remained until the Revolution. Its 
legislative experience was the same as that of the other colonies 
similarly situated, and its early history almost the same, if not 
part of that of Massachusetts. Its first legislatures were 
organized at Portsmouth in 1639, and at Dover in 1640. 

The charter of Connecticut, granted by Charles II. in 1662, 
contained very liberal provisions, vesting all the powers of gov- 
ernment — legislative, executive, and judicial — in the freemen 
of the province incorporated under it. This liberal charter 
formed the foundation of the government until the constitution 
of Connecticut was adopted in 1818. To the three towns, Hart- 
ford, Wethersfield, and AVindsor, in Connecticut, belong the 
honor of drafting, in 1639, the first written constitution known 
in American history. It made every citizen, regardless of re- 
ligious views, a voter. 

The charter of Rhode Island, granted by Charles II. in 1663, 
bound its people only to aU'egiance to the king. Under the 



8 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

leadership of Roger Williams, absolute freedom of conscience 
was guaranteed. Believer or unbeliever, every citizen was the 
same before the law, and no property conditions burdened the 
elective franchise. The representative system began there in 
1651, before this charter was granted. The charter, it should 
be said, was so liberal that it was kept as their constitution 
until 1842, when a constitution was adopted. 

The New England colonies consisted of small towns or vil- 
lages. Their legislatures, comprised of representatives from 
all of these towns, were usually called the general court. As 
they grew in importance, the English kings began to quarrel 
with them about their legislation, especially their religious 
restrictions. 

They found the counterpart of Virginia's Berkeley in Sir 
Edmund Andros, first made governor of the Massachusetts Bay 
colony, and then a sort of vice-royal ruler over all of New Eng- 
land, New York, and New Jersey. Twice the charter of Massa- 
chusetts was annulled by the king. Andros was ordered by the 
king to take and return the charters of Connecticut and Rhode 
Island, but failed in his efforts. The rescue of the charter of 
Connecticut was romantic and dramatic. When, on the order 
of Andros, it was produced by its custodians at night, the lights 
in the room where all were assembled were put out, and when 
relighted the precious charter was gone. Captain William 
Wadsworth had taken and hidden it in the hollow of an oak 
tree, which became famous as ''The Charter Oak." 

Most of the royal governors were odious to the people. They 
appointed censors of all publications to prevent dissemination 
of the news of their outrages and to check advocacy of the 
rights of the people. Hence the provision in our constitution 
guaranteeing the freedom of speech and of the press. 

When James II. was dethroned, the New England colonies 
snapped their bonds asunder, rose in rebellion, and deposed 
and imprisoned Andros. But under the succeeding monarchs, 
royal governors were appointed, who were blind to past ex- 
periences and failed to profit by them. As a rule, they were men 



COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS 9 

whose only faith was in the oppression of power; to whom no 
voice of politic reason or plain justice could appeal, and be- 
tween whom and the local legislatures was continual strife. 

The exactions of these arbitrary governors in all the col- 
onies, north and south, were the same, and made a common 
cause of grievance, a common bond of sympathy, a community 
of interest and feeling which ripened to the ultimate, the 
destined, end. They made the history of the development and 
the suppression of legislation. They caused the experiences 
that led up to the final formation of the constitution, wherein 
such oppressions are safeguarded against; wherein are bor- 
rowed and imbedded provisions to protect the rights and lib- 
erties of the people and to limit and fix the powers and respon- 
sibilities of their rulers. In such harsh but everlastingly in- 
structive schools, was the legislative and constitutional educa- 
tion of our "Fathers" accomplished. 

New Jersey was first settled by Dutch emigrants from New 
York. In 1664, with the whole of the New Netherlands, it came 
into the possession of the Duke of York, and afterwards into 
the possession of George Carteret, by whom it was named New 
Jersey, after the Island of Jersey, of which he was governor. 
Its continued settlement was largely by the Quakers. After 
many changes, it became a royal province in 1728, and so re- 
mained until the Revolution, having had a representative leg- 
islature established in 1668. 

Delaware was first settled by the Swedes in 1638, and was 
called New Sweden. In 1681, it came into the possession of 
William Penn, who treated English and Swedes with equal 
liberality. After its previous experience in legislation as part 
of Pennsylvania, its separate legislature was established in 
1703. 

The title to the provinces of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 
North and South Carolina, until 1721, was vested in a pro- 
prietor, who by virtue thereof was the governor, and appointed 
the council and the judicial and other officers, but allowed the 



10 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

people, under limitations fixed by the proprietors, to elect the 
members of the assembly. 

In Maryland, such an assembly was made annual in 1635, 
and the two houses thereof are mentioned in their legislative 
journal in 1647. 

"William Penn, of justly revered memory, was the proprietor 
of Pennsylvania, recognized the people as his equal, and joined 
with them in the enactment of a constitution called ' ' The Great 
Law," which yet lives in legitimate descent in many of the pro- 
visions of our national and state constitutions. His immortal 
utterance: '* Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obe- 
dience without liberty is slavery," was the common-sense cor- 
nerstone of his system of liberty under self-chosen laws. To 
the eternal shame of the English authorities, and some of the 
ungrateful beneficiaries of his bounty, this wise, this benevo- 
lent, this tender-hearted man, the founder of the "City of 
Brotherly Love," the very name of which typifies the character 
of the man, for years fought against imprisonment on false 
charges, and had his life embittered by persecutions. 

The Carolinas were settled by the French as well as by the 
English and Scotch-Irish. Their governmental experience illus- 
trates an instructive fallacy of culture and learning. The cele- 
brated philosopher, John Locke, and the cultured Lord Shaftes- 
bury drafted for the Carolinas a constitution, which they 
termed "The Grand Model," and prophesied would "live the 
sacred and unalterable form and rule of government forever." 
But it left out of consideration two essentials of lasting gov- 
ernment : first, the brick and mortar that have ever been the 
bulwark of permanent power — the common people ; second, the 
historic lesson that local legislation cannot be successfully 
made by aliens. So, while never observed, in less than twenty 
years from its promulgation, it fell into what a modern states- 
man would call "innocuous desuetude," and then passed into 
utter abandonment. 

The representative legislative system was inaugurated in 
North Carolina in 1667, in South Carolina in 1674. 



COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS H 

Georgia was at first part of the great Carolina grant to 
Lord Clarendon, but in 1732 was granted to James Oglethorpe, 
one of the ablest, most benevolent and remarkable men known 
in our colonial history. It was settled by German Protestants 
as well as by the English. For the first twenty-one years the 
colonists had no power to enact laws for their government. 
Slavery was prohibited, and no Roman Catholic was allowed to 
own or settle on land in that colony. In 1752 it became a royal 
province, and so remained, with the same legislative system as 
royal provinces, until the Revolution. 

As has been seen, the governor was appointed in all the 
colonies, except the proprietary colonies of Pennsylvania and 
Maryland ; Connecticut under its special charter, Rhode Island 
and at first in Massachusetts. He could dissolve and call the as- 
semblies, or legislatures, at pleasure, and had the power to veto 
any law. With the council, he appointed judges, established 
courts and raised and directed all military forces and opera- 
tions. Directly or indirectly, through the governors, the Eng- 
lish government was careful to retain all real power. All 
colonies had a legislature composed of an upper and lower 
house, except New Plampshire, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, 
which had one house only. 

In all of the colonies, except New Hampshire, where he had 
to pay a poll tax, merely, to be entitled to vote, the colonist 
had to own property, the amount varying in the different 
colonies. The governor had to be worth from $10,000 in New 
Jersey and South Carolina, to $134 in Rhode Island, and mem- 
bers of the legislature, also, were subjected to increased and 
different property qualifications, loss of property in some of 
the colonies working dismissal from office. The scarcity of 
wealth in that day and public sentiment, if not legal provision, 
made the governments the governments of the rich and the 
religious. In 1776, New Jersey gave women who owned a cer- 
tain amount of property the right to vote. 

Peculiar laws, customs, and sentiments marked each colony. 
Catholics and Quakers were driven out of the Puritan colonies. 



12 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

The Puritans were driven out of Delaware and Virginia. 
Catholics were not allowed in Georgia. 

The different colonies, widely separated by Indian infested 
forests, knew but little of the workings of each other, and cared 
less. In their isolated situations, they showed how, in com- 
munities, "use doth breed a habit in a man." They showed 
how attached people become to their own educated usages, how 
prone to sectional prejudices. Fleeing thither to enjoy the un- 
interrupted exercise of their own peculiar opinions, a wider 
gulf long separated them, though under one common, dominant 
central government, than if they were of different races. This 
feeling was added to by the fact that so many communities 
were of different races, with different hereditary ideas and cus- 
toms. Hence the diversity in their laws. 




CHAPTER III 

COLONIAL WAES 

jHE next step in the preparation of the colonies for 
the achievement of independence and the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of self-government was 
the French and Indian wars, extending from 1689 
to 1763, a period of seventy-four years. These wars became an 
added cause of estrangement of the colonies from England, and 
the chief cause of Canada not joining with the English colonies 
in the Revolution. 

France had settled and claimed Canada. Her colonists were 
almost wholly Catholics, The missionaries of the Catholic 
church, the hardy French pioneers, Joliet, La Salle, and Mar- 
quette, had explored the Great Lakes, the Mississippi down to 
New Orleans and thence across to Mobile, as well as many of 
the great rivers that emptied into the Mississippi. They had 
established over sixty forts and military stations in the vast 
territory of the Mississippi Valley and had penetrated as far 
east as where Pittsburg now stands. At the latter place they 
built Fort Duquesne, which afterward, in honor of America's 
great friend, William Pitt, was named Fort Pitt, and then 
Pittsburg. 

An interesting feature of their discoveries is the fact, ex- 
tensively published in France at the time, that near Ottawa, 
Illinois, these explorers piled up back of the logs which they 
kindled what they supposed to be black rocks. The rocks took 
fire and made better fuel than the timber they used. This was 
the discovery of coal in America. 

The English colonies fringed the Atlantic coast, yet claimed 
this vast and comparatively unknown territory to the Missis- 
sippi, which the French discoveries made disputed domain. 

13 



14 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

France and England being at war with each other in 
Europe, and each claiming this splendid territory, the scene of 
their conflict was extended from Europe to America, and the 
colonists from both countries were dragged into the conflict. 
Owing to the fact that the French got along with the Indians 
better than the English settlers, and succeeded in securing 
many Indian tribes for allies, our colonies suffered the horrors 
of scores of Indian massacres, and there was engendered be- 
tween Canada and our colonies a bitterness of hostility that 
lasted until long after independence was achieved. 

The English claimed the territory to the Mississippi, if not 
to the Pacific, when the two races met and began the struggle 
for supremacy in this new world, and the colonies, claiming 
heirship to, if not ownership of this land, lent their loyal aid to 
the mother country, enhanced in enthusiasm by their own per- 
sonal interest. By the treaty between England and France, 
in 1763, Canada and all this vast region in dispute passed for- 
ever from French possession and came into that of the British 
crown. 

The conquest cost the colonies over thirty thousand of their 
hardy sons, and sixteen million dollars in money. With good 
reason, the colonists felt that they had bought this territory 
with their best blood and hard-earned treasure, so when George 
III. annexed it to the province of Quebec, forbade further set- 
tlement therein by the very pioneers who had won it, and 
ordered the few settlers there to remove east of the Alleghanies, 
public indignation was universal. 

The artful restoration of the wrested property to the Catho- 
lic Church in Canada by the English government widened be- 
tween Canada and the other provinces the gulf that already 
existed by reason of racial difference and past conflicts, and 
severed all sympathy between Canada and the other colonies. 
To be sure, for reasons of state, rather than love for the 
colonies, France allied itself later with the Revolutionists, and 
many of the sons of France, from motives of loftiest, purest 
patriotic philanthropy and from sincerest love of liberty, 



COLONIAL WARS 15 

staked their fortunes and lives in our aid, and will deservedly 
live forever in the grateful memory of our people. But these 
facts did not make friendly sentiment for Canada. 

The supercilious treatment by the English officers of the 
rude backvroodsmen, who bore the brunt of every battle and 
were superior to the British soldiery by reason of experience in 
frontier warfare, left rankling wounds among the colonists 
that aggravated other grievances. All of the superior officers 
in these later wars were British, and they made the colonial 
troops, both officers and men, feel the weight of their contempt. 
And the colonists never forgot it. 

During the long and trying period of the French and Indian 
wars the need of colonial assistance had compelled the Eng- 
lish governors to relax the enforcement of many of their op- 
pressive regulations, and to give enlarged liberty to the grow- 
ing colonies. No race, above all the Anglo-Saxon, ever gave up 
rights once acquired, without a struggle, and the colonists were 
determined not to surrender the vantage ground gained by the 
interested indulgence of their rulers. But having conquered 
France, fearing nothing from European alliance, and believing 
the colonists weakened to exhaustion by the long struggle, 
England renewed its oppression, and the next twelve years 
counted for more in the way of alienation than did all our 
previous history. 

The value of the French and Indian wars was almost in- 
estimable. The experience not only inured the colonists to the 
privations and hardships of war; not only taught them the 
power and value of military discipline ; not only made them 
skilled marksmen, and familiar with the fields of future con- 
flicts; not only made them acquainted with each other and 
convinced all that they were one and the same people looking 
forward to the same destiny, but, above all, taught them the 
power and utility of united effort and united legislation. 

The French and Indian wars effected the education and 
urvification of rank and file. The shots of those wars shattered 
the exclusiveness of the colonies, and the blood of their cher- 



16 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

ished dead cemented in common grateful memory the hearts 
of the communities that contributed their sons to the common 
cause. 

The wars prepared the- called-for leaders. "Washington, 
Gates, Morgan, Montgomery, Stark, Putnam and many other 
officers of the Revolutionary army found in these wars the 
practical university, the military school of theory and ex- 
perience, educating them to plan the unforeseen battles, and 
prepare the countless details which made the efficiency of the 
armies in the Revolution so rapidly approaching. 

The ties of Indian war memories and common perils bound 
the colonies in strongest sympathy, and their "Committees of 
Correspondence ' ' in the coming troubles communicated as well- 
known acquaintances, as long-time friends. Virginia and South 
Carolina felt that any blow aimed at Massachusetts fell on 
kindred shoulders. They first taught the fruitful lesson, em- 
phasized in all our after history, of the inestimable value of the 
intermingling of the American people. 

This long period of intermittent war left the colonies con- 
querors of all enemies on their own soil, trained in the use of 
arms and the methods of warfare, and inspired with the cour- 
age of their own prowess, and their superiority over the soldiers 
sent here in the methods of the warfare they had to wage. It 
developed a confidence that made them more readily dare the 
coming conflict, and vitally supplemented their legislative 
labors in preparing them to establish a government for them- 
selves. 




CHAPTER IV 

SUMMAEY OF GOVERNMENT 

[HITS, it will be seen, a system of government alike 
in many respects existed in all of the colonies, ar- 
ranged somewhat as at present, yet radically dif- 
ferent. There were the governors and the two 
houses of the legislature; the councils, or upper houses, cor- 
responding to the senate of to-day; the assemblies, or lower 
houses, corresponding to the modern house of representatives. 
The differences in other respects were great. 

The various colonial governments may be divided into three 
classes : provincial, or royal, proprietary, and charter govern- 
ments. The provincial, or royal, were New Hampshire, New 
York, New Jersey after 1702 ; Virginia, North and South Caro- 
lina after 1729, and Georgia. The proprietary were Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey until 1702, and North 
and South Carolina until 1729. The charter were Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 

In the provincial governments, the king appointed the gov- 
ernors and the councils. The governors, if so inclined, called 
for the election of the assemblies by the voters. 

In the proprietary governments, the governors appointed 
the councils and called for the election of the assemblies by the 
voters. 

The charter governments were those whose forms, rights, 
and powers were set out in the charters granted by the king, 
the charter being the same in that form of government as the 
modern constitution is to the state. 

All were modeled largely after the English method. There, 
the legislative power was and yet is vested in king, lords, and 
commons. Here, it was in the governors, councils, and assem- 

17 



18 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

blies. The members of parliament in England and of the as- 
semblies here, were elected by the qualified voters, and while in 
most colonies no provision was made for legislatures, the 
colonists^ being English subjects, claimed all the rights and 
privileges of English subjects in the mother country, chief 
among them to be represented in the government. The gov- 
ernors and the councils had to concur, to give initial effective- 
ness to any legislation, then the king or foreign owners had to 
approve. The colonists had no voice in the choice of the 
governors or councils. These were the creatures of and re- 
sponsible only to this alien authority for what they did, or 
failed to do. They were under no obligation of any sort to the 
colonists. No laws could be passed in any of the colonies 
contrary to the laws of England. Thus the common law of 
England, yet prevailing in all of the states except Louisiana, 
where the Roman or French system exists, became the estab- 
lished legal system of America. 

A share in legislation was demanded by the colonists as the 
legal right of Englishmen, but was accorded much as a fiction 
to allay discontent, the foreign authority in all cases having the 
power to veto any legislation. The actual power of the rep- 
resentatives amounted to but little in itself, but its educational 
influence was of incalculable value. Through the elective mem- 
bers of the legislatures, the people were clothed with the form 
of self-government, the semblance of liberty. This was to bring 
later the reality. The people were being made accustomed to 
and familiar with the practical workings of elections, judicial 
proceedings, and legislative action — all the paraphernalia and 
process of self-government — so that when self-government did 
come, they were ready for it. That transition was but vitaliz- 
ing these accustomed forms into the living, breathing realities 
of governments by and for the people. 

The colonists, also, had their own peculiar laws. The Penn- 
sylvania Quaker and the Maryland Catholic extended religious 
freedom to the New England Puritan who removed to those 
colonies, but that Catholic or Quaker was rewarded with a coat 
of tar and feathers, the whipping post, or worse, if he removed 



SUMMARY OF GOVERNMENT 19 

to the New England colony and carried his religion with him. 
Or, if he removed to Georgia, he was denied the right to own 
property, or hold office, or vote. 

In some of the colonies, one qualification of property existed 
for the voter, another for the legislator. In others, a religious 
qualification was enforced in addition. In some, the people in 
town meetings discussed and passed laws. In others, this was 
done by their representatives. 

The colonists attempted no proselyting among their neigh- 
bors, and permitted no interference with their local affairs by 
those neighbors. Throughout this century and a half, each 
colony was an existence unto itself, foreign to every other 
colony, subservient solely to the supreme control of the British 
crown. Naturally, the various colonies became hereditarily 
attached to their local notions of self-government. Their very 
isolation made these distinct ideas of political policy all the 
more vigorous in each; their struggles to maintain these 
peculiarities made them all the more obstinate in their attach- 
ment to them and less amenable to outside interference. If 
others did not like the local regulations, they could leave. If 
they did not leave voluntarily, they were forced to. These 
experiences nourished and gave strong roots to the doctrine 
of state supremacy. Its survival is neither to be wondered at 
nor blamed. 

But, as the colonies increased in population, as settlements 
approached each other, and acquaintances extended, com- 
munity as well as conflict of interests and ideas were engen- 
dered. Surrounded by Indian tribes, a common foe to all, there 
gradually developed a common cause of offense and defense. 
The community and conflict of interests and ideas added to the 
demand for some supreme power which should be an impartial, 
central arbiter familiar and in sympathy with the local needs 
and predilections. 

Another powerful lever toward unification had long been 
at work, and was being given increased energy of action. As 
development of the colonies progressed, both production and 



20 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

consumption increased and commerce enlarged, until the trade 
with the colonies became most valuable to the British manu- 
facturer and merchant. With the growth of trade, cupidity 
usurped the place of reason in the English mind, and the exac- 
tions of the British authorities became more and more severe. 
To confine this new fount of wealth to the English became the 
dominant thought of the English rulers. Then was born the 
two-headed monster, the tyranny of the crown and parliament, 
that tightened its folds about every industry, every right. The 
English parliament, successor of the very commons that had 
wrung Magna Charta from King John at Runnymede, and cut 
off the head of Charles I. for his infringement of their rights, 
claimed the same right of taxation and legislation for the 
colonies, without representation, that they had staked their all 
to wrest from despotic monarchs. Too feeble for armed resist- 
ance, the colonies could only protest, and appeal to the sense 
of justice that should have animated every English legislator 
and to the established law that should have been recognized 
by Great Britain. They were obliged to await the educating 
evolution of the truth that unity in governmental action is the 
child of law, the product of legislation ; that it is begotten and 
born of the surrender of much of sovereignty, much of inde- 
pendence, and the development of inter-dependence; that 
neither men nor communities live unto themselves alone, but 
out of mutual sacrifices, mutual efforts in common sympathies, 
come the highest and holiest benefits to all. 




CHAPTER V 

EELIGION AND EDUCATION 

gVERY large proportion of the early settlers sought 
our shores to be secure in the enjoyment of their 
religious liberty. They had braved the fury of 
their native governments and the hostility of their 
countrymen in conscientious adherence to their faiths. They 
had abandoned their kindred, their native lands, the dearest 
ties that association and memory weave about the human heart, 
in supreme adoration of God and to devote their lives to what 
they believed was His proper worship. Their influence was 
all-powerful in laying the foundations of this republic. A 
profound and sincere and energetic piety pervaded all the 
colonies from Maine to Georgia. No such thing as modern 
skepticism and a host of other isms that confuse to-day's 
thought was known. The Bible was the book of books with 
them. They read and reread it; they believed it; they lived 
up to that 'belief as God gave them light to see. Their excesses 
were the children of an unfaltering, over-enthusiastic faith — 
the parent of fanatical oppression. They saw eternal ruin in 
opposition to that faith, in anything that tended to its impair- 
ment, and, as a rule, dealt with such opposition with a relent- 
less and rigorous hand, just as they would have dealt with 
one who sought to apply the torch to their homes, or to attempt 
the lives of their families. With scarcely an exception, the 
leaders of the day were devout. God-fearing men. Women, 
always and everywhere the main support of the church, were 
the almost universal teachers of the young, and religious and 
moral instruction was as large a part of their teaching as intel- 
lectual culture. Weighed down by personal poverty and under 
the impotent make-shift for a government that the continental 

21 



32 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

alliance and the confederation gave them, does it not appear 
that the piety that marked the entire country was rewarded 
by the guidance of God in the successful effort for freedom 
and independence? 

The southern colonies were agricultural, and by reason of 
the separated settlers, the danger and difficulty of attendance 
gave less opportunity for schools than the town settlements 
of their northern associates. Little was done in those colonies 
toward the establishment of public schools until after state- 
hood was attained under the national government, and with 
that we are not now dealing. 

Virginia was first settled by an adventurous class of men, 
who came with the alluring but delusive hope of acquiring 
sudden fortune and returning to England to enjoy it, and who 
were without the family ties that make religion and education 
of first importance. With the coming of women, marriage, 
home-founding, and permanent settlement, however, an imme- 
diate change resulted. ° Regard for the future of those always 
dearer to men of character and conscience than their own 
lives turned the attention and efforts of the later settlers to 
the moral and intellectual upbuilding of the coming genera- 
tion. The Church of England was made the established 
church, and was well provided for. 

The environment of the Virginia settlers made a system of 
general education impracticable, and their antecedents made 
them careless of it. Engaged almost wholly in the profitable 
culture of tobacco, with widely separated farms, surrounded 
by hostile Indians, the attendance of children upon schools 
was difficult and dangerous. But they were of the higher 
grade of English people, and believers in the best of educa- 
tion for the few, if regardless of a common culture. Many 
of the young men were taught by private tutors at home until 
prepared and sent to the English universities. The young 
women were limited to home culture. 

In 1619, the directors of the colony of Virginia in England 
voted 10,000 acres of land to establish a university at Henrico^ 



EELIGION AND EDUCATION 23 

and the same year the colonists addressed a petition to the 
odious Berkeley, praying that the king be petitioned for let- 
ters patent authorizing subscriptions among the good people 
of England for the erection of colleges and public schools. In 
1660, a tax of a penny a pound was levied on all tobacco, and 
all fees and profits of the office of the surveyor-general placed 
under the control of the faculty of the college, which, in 1692, 
was named the College of "William and Mary, and located at 
Williamsburg, then the capital. They also voted to this col- 
lege £2,000 and 20,000 acres of land. The college now known 
as Washington and Lee was established at Lexington in 1749. 

The Puritans came to this country for the express purpose 
of freedom of religion — freedom for themselves and their 
religion. Strange to say, they practiced the very intolerance 
toward other religions that they themselves had fled the old 
world to escape. Roger Williams, the apostle of conscience in 
religion, was expelled from the colony. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, 
one of the most remarkable women in American history, who 
confined her preaching mainly to her own sex, was also ban- 
ished, although upheld by Governor Vane and many of the 
leading men. The gentle, non-resisting Quaker was even more 
rigorously dealt with. The power of the Puritan ministers was 
as great, if not greater, than that of the public officials. Not 
until 1686, when Massachusetts became a royal province, did 
their power begin to lessen. 

In 1623, an unusually abundant harvest blessed the efforts 
of the Massachusetts people, and when Governor Bradford, 
after the harvest, sent out men to get game, a similar abun- 
dance was brought in. In devout recognition, he ordered a 
great feast prepared, to which the Indian king Massasoit and 
ninety of his tribe were invited, and there first they ''thanked 
God for the good things of this world," and began the annual 
Thanksgiving that, ushered in by the president's proclama- 
tion, has become the great day for family reunion and religious 
gratitude in the larger part of the country. 

Notwithstanding the excesses v/hich the intensity of their 



24 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

religious fervor made them guilty of, the Puritans were an 
honest, elean-minded, pure people, to whom not only America 
but the civilized world as well will always owe a debt of 
gratitude. They will stand forever as the sturdy type of 
devotees to a principle, ready to deal and dare death in sup- 
port of the principle they espoused; as constant, energetic 
seekers for the world's moral and intellectual betterment. 
Their ministers went with the Bible in one hand and school 
book in the other, and they sought no bondage of ignorance 
to bind people to their belief. 

In 1636, the Massachusetts general assembly voted £1,000 
to found a college at Newtown. In 1638, John Harvard willed 
to it his library and £800. It was thereupon given the name 
of Harvard College, and the name of Newtown changed to 
Cambridge. There the first printing press in America was set 
up. The first publication was the New England Almanac. 
For many years each family gave a peck of corn or one shilling 
cash to sustain this college. 

Free schools were established in Boston in 1636. In thirty 
years, no town was without its free school, and where the town 
had one hundred families, it had a grammar school. Every 
town failing to keep a school at least three months in the year 
was fined five pounds, and the school law provided that the 
children of the poor should be taught free. Here was the 
beginning of the public school system that is the pride, the 
hope, the glory of the United States. 

Connecticut in 1639 adopted the Bible as the law of the 
colony, and provided that only church members should be 
freemen. Thereafter, all religious restrictions were removed, 
and every male of good moral character was accorded citizen- 
ship. There, also, was heartily given the same support of 
public education known in Massachusetts, and the main- 
tenance of public schools was made compulsory. 

In 1701, ten ministers, nine of them graduates of Harvard, 
contributed from their libraries for the founding of a college. 
This was the foundation of Yale College. 



EELIGION AND EDUCATION 25 

Under "William Penn, public schools were started in Phila- 
delphia. In 1689, a public grammar school, known as "The 
Penn Charter School," was established there. This, later, 
under the guiding and sagacious hand of Benjamin Franklin, 
who drew up the proposal founding it, bore fruit in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 

Under the Dutch patroons, the Dutch Protestant church 
was the church of the state of New York, then New Amster- 
dam. Any minister who preached a doctrine contrary to the 
doctrine of that church was fined £500, and those who dared 
to listen to him, £100 each. When New York passed under 
English possession, other denominations were allowed equal 
freedom. Schools were supported by private enterprise. 
King's College, now Columbia, was established in 1754. 

Under the lead of Roger Williams, the utmost religious 
liberty was allowed in Rhode Island. A public school was 
established in Newport in 1646, and thence schools spread over 
the colony. Brown University was established at Providence 
in 1765. 

In 1693, each town in New Hampshire, except Dover, which 
was too impoverished by Indian raids, was required to provide 
a school. Dartmouth College was established at Hanover in 
1769. In 1656, the "New Hampshire Gazette," the first news- 
paper, and the oldest in New England, began publication. 

New Jersey was tolerant toward all religions. By a law 
enacted in 1693, the maintenance of public schools was left 
to each township, but the tax was binding on all the citizens 
thereof when voted. The first public school was established 
in Newark in 1676. The College of New Jersey was estab- 
lished at Princeton in 1746, and what became Rutger's College, 
at New Brunswick, in 1769. 

The Salzburgers, German Protestants, whose persecution 
enlisted the sympathies of the Christian world, the hardy 
Swiss, and the Scotch Presbyterians, as well as the Methodist 
lovers of religious liberty, made sacred the early settlement 
of Georgia, which, though the last settled of the thirteen 



26 THE CONSTITUTION" AND ITS FEAMEES 

original states, soon became one of the most orderly, cultured, 
and prosperous. 

The French Huguenots, hunted to forest depths and moun- 
tain snows in their native land, found an asylum in the Caro- 
linas, as did many of the sturdy and stubborn Scotch Presby- 
terians. Their posterity were among the most honorable who 
built up those states and helped make American history, carry- 
ing with them the purity, the honesty, the decision of char- 
acter that distinguished such an ancestry. 

In probably the greatest forensic effort of America's 
staunch friend — the peerless reasoner, the matchless orator of 
his day, the Webster of English parliamentary history, Ed- 
mund Burke — he stated, in 1775, "I have been told by an 
eminent bookseller that in no branch of his business, after 
tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on 
law, exported to the plantations. The colonists have now 
fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I 
hear they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Com- 
mentaries in America as England." 

Considering the day in which they lived and their situation 
and surroundings, their enthusiasm and efforts for private and 
public culture is one of the most marvelous and commendable 
features of the republic's founders. They appreciated and felt 
to the fullest the value of the alchemy of culture that turned 
into the gold of mental power the intellectual abilities of the 
people. Their works and the writings of their day tell of the 
results obtained in their superior intelligence. This republic 
was founded and built up in a religious, moral, and intellectual 
atmosphere, and it behooves those who inherit and enjoy the 
legacy left by the colonists to preserve and perpetuate every 
element that entered into its composition, and made us what 
we are. 




CHAPTER VI 

EFFORTS FOR UNION 

jHE advantage, nay more, the necessity of the union 
of the colonies early became apparent, and prompt- 
ed the feeble beginning that ended in the nation 
reaching from ocean to ocean. In 1638, the three 
towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield joined in a 
little confederacy under the first constitution written by 
Americans for American people. 

In 1643, the four colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Connecti- 
cut, Plymouth, and New Haven, endeavored to form a union 
under the name of "The United Colonies of New England." 
This was solely for defense against the Indians, and no at- 
tempt was made for anything like a mutual system of inter- 
colonial law. Its board of eight commissioners, two from each 
colony, were empowered to call out troops, conduct campaigns, 
and settle disputes between the colonies, but not to interfere in 
any way with the internal or domestic affairs and local gov- 
ernment of any one of them. 

Rhode Island was denied admission to this confederacy 
because freedom of worship was established in it ; Maine, be- 
cause it maintained the worship of the Church of England. 
The Puritan conscience did not permit of such irreligious 
contact even for needed, united defense against a savage foe. 

John Locke, and the commissioners for the colonies in 
England, endeavored to establish a sort of military union be- 
tween all of them at the beginning of the French and Indian 
wars, but it proved abortive. These wars, however, were the 
first occasions where all the colonies, as subjects of a common 
government, were brought into a common alliance which was 
really the foundation of the ultimate union. 

27 



38 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

In 1690, the Massachusetts general court invited all the 
colonies to send commissioners to meet at New York and 
agree on suitable methods to assist each other for the safety 
of the whole land. All of the colonies made favorable replies, 
even the Quaker governor of Rhode Island promising that 
colony's armed aid. But, owing to distance and difficulty of 
travel, only commissioners from Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Plymouth, New York and Maryland met. 

In 1697, William Penn proposed to establish a congress of 
two deputies from each of the colonies to meet once a year, 
or oftener, in time of war, and every two years in time of 
peace, to consider matters of common concern. 

June 19, 1754, a convention was held at Albany, New York, 
to form a United Confederacy to repel the attacks of the 
French and Indians. This was attended by delegates from 
seven of the colonies — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. 

Benjamin Franklin was a member of this convention, and 
submitted to it a constitution for the formation of a per- 
manent union, but it was not democratic enough to suit the 
colonies, and too democratic to suit the king, and so, between 
the two stools, it fell to the ground. It was far more national 
than the articles of confederation, and well served the good 
purpose of stimulating public thought and attention to the 
benefit of a common union, and throughout the whole country 
inspired anew the desire for a more democratic government. 
Franklin proposed a grand council of representatives from all 
of the colonies to meet in Philadelphia every year, with powers 
similar to our national house of representatives, enabling it to 
levy taxes, build forts, and exercise supreme control over 
matters that concerned all alike. He proposed to have a presi- 
dent to be appointed and paid by the English king, with 
power to veto all acts of this general council. 

Franklin's plan is known as the Albany plan. Says our 
eminent historian, John Fiske, "If the Albany plan had been 
adopted in 1754, it is quite possible that there would have 



EFFORTS FOE UNION 29 

been no revolution. But not one of the colonies accepted the 
plan. The people eared little or nothing for union. A native 
of Massachusetts regarded himself as a Massachusetts man, 
or a New Englander, or an Englishman; not as an American, 
with Pennsylvanians and Virginians as countrymen. So it 
was with all the colonies; in all, the feeling of Americanism 
grew but slowly." 

October 7, 1765, nine colonies sent twenty-six delegates to 
the congress which was held in New York, and was known as 
the "Stamp Act Congress." New York was represented by 
four, Rhode Island and Delaware by two each, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South 
Carolina by three delegates each. The other colonies, while 
in ardent sympathy, sent no delegates, being prevented by 
their loyalist governors. 

Timothy Ruggles, a Tory of Massachusetts, was elected 
president of this congress, whose session was of but three 
weeks' duration. It adopted a "Declaration of Rights and 
Grievances of the Colonies," which was agreed to by all, but 
not signed by the delegates from some of the colonies, who 
considered themselves destitute of authority to do so and 
wished the declaration referred to the respective assemblies 
for action. All of the colonies ratified this declaration, and 
some of them made severe censure of their delegates for fail- 
ing to sign it. 

The next congress, which became the great congress of 
the Revolution, met at Philadelphia, September 4, 1774. This 
congress adopted a "Declaration of Rights," declaring, among 
other things, that since the colonies "cannot be properly rep- 
resented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free 
and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial 
legislatures." It was then, and yet is, the British law that 
no tax should be levied on the people, except by members of 
parliament elected by them as their representatives. This 
right that congress claimed, and in addition the right of the 
colonies to enact in their own representative legislatures all 



30 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

laws, except those relating to foreign commerce and of an 
international nature. Loath to part with the mother country, 
still loyal to the English sovereign, craving only their rights 
to be the same on one side the sea as the other, on October 26, 
1774, this congress addressed the king in their respectful, if 
not humble, petition as "the loving father of your whole 
people," protested that "they had not raised armies with the ^ 
ambitious design of separating from Great Britain, and estab- 
lishing independent states," and begged his reparation of 
their wrongs. 

The next attempt was by the adoption of the articles of 
confederation in 1781, and the last, the adoption of the present 
constitution in 1789. 

All of these tentative efforts were steps toward the final 
consummation. They started and kept up the trend of public 
thought that, year by year, was educating and maturing the 
leaders and the masses for such a government as the world 
furnished no precedent for, and could only be had as the 
product of gradual evolution. 

These historic facts demonstrate that the formation of the 
constitution was no sudden, impulsive outburst, born of un- 
expected necessity and the climax of an unlooked-for crisis, 
but the crowning achievement of over a century and a half of 
earnest study, of varied and repeated suggestions on the part 
of the ablest and best minds during all that developing period. 

Never in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race, if in the 
history of the world, was the public thought so centered in the 
rights of man — in the theory of government — as during the 
period from 1640 to 1776. From the Elizabethan era — the 
climax of that race's activities along literary lines — its intel- 
lectual energies were turned into the study of governmental 
problems. Even back beyond this age it went. The British 
parliament had long stood for the people against the king, 
and the struggle which began centuries before at Eunnymede, 
continuing until it had cost one king his crown and another 
his head, planted principles never to die. British emigration 



EFFORTS FOR UNION 31 

to America was largely in excess of that of all other nationali- 
ties combined, and with almost complete unanimity, the emi- 
grants were imbued with the growing doctrine of democratic 
equality. This belief grew with their residence here. Those 
of other races who sought our shores did so mainly to enjoy 
that religious, if not civil, liberty, that freedom of opinion, 
speech, and conscience denied them in the land of their 
nativity. Thus they added to the growing sentiment of the 
day and time. 

These combined streams, with no representatives of royalty 
here to stem or turn their current, were fed by the local 
situation of society, in which personal fitness, alone, could 
claim the place of precedence, personal worth call to place and 
command. Here was the glamour of no court to dazzle and 
delude. Here all were frontiersmen, who must plan and battle 
more for their own protection than for their prosperity. They 
were in a new world, alien in all things to the clans, classes, 
and conditions of the old. Thrown upon their own resources, 
dependent upon themselves, they fought in their own way 
the savage whose domain they were wresting, and of necessity 
were driven to the enactment of laws suited to the peculiar 
situation of each community. Their inherited views of the 
rights of the citizen were broadened, deepened, and reinforced 
by their experiences. They builded upon the foundation laid 
in the contests of the old world for the supremacy of rights 
established by law over the prerogatives due to the accident of 
birth. Back through the centuries run the roots of the tree 
of American independence. It may have burst into sudden 
flower, but its growth was of no mushroom speed. 

Never were plans for self-government so thoughtfully con- 
sidered, so much enlarged, and so remodeled to secure public 
and private rights, individual and community safety, and the 
establishment of a system of legislation that would enthrone 
power without tyranny, that would give the strength of unity 
without the crushing coercion of a central authority ignorant 
of the born and bred principles, the local ideas and the peculiar 



33 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

attachments that each of the colonies cherished. The right 
to individual opinion, to freedom of thought and speech, to 
enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness under laws 
that at once restrained and enlarged individual action, that 
gave each one his own, yet trenched on no other's rights, was 
slowly, surely, gradually maturing to everlasting establish- 
ment. Common peril inaugurated the action. Common profit 
urged it on. The wisdom that comes from a multitude of coun- 
sel and experience refined its growth. 

And, during all the dark years of the War for Inde- 
pendence, the Anglo-Saxon of America had the sympathy of 
the Anglo-Saxon of England. While but few of England's 
statesmen — and they the ablest that adorn the history of that 
day — braved the fury of court and courtier in defense of 
colonial claims, the vast majority of the English people gave 
such earnest sympathy to their kinsmen here that the king 
was compelled to hire the Hessian soldiery to fight his battles 
against the flesh and blood of those who upheld his crown. 

/ It is certainly a matter of international congratulation, 
that, as the years have gone by, the rulers, leaders and peo- 
ple of no two nations have grown closer to each other than 
those of Great Britain and the United States. May this good 
feeling ever continue, growing in sincerity and intensity! In 
cither's hour of need may the other ever give heartiest re- 
sponse, in the words of the English Admiral, when asked his 
reason for interfering with a foreign power in behalf of im- 
periled Americans whom he rescued from impending execu- 
tion, "Blood is thicker than water, they speak the same 
tongue that I do!" 




CHAPTER VII 

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 

|E have seen how, from the very beginnings of set- 
tlement here, the unrebuked tyrannies of the gov- 
ernors sent over to rule the colonies had exasper- 
ated and alienated them from Great Britain. 
Charters had been granted and taken away. Territories had 
been divided without the consent and against the will of 
those to whom they had been conceded. All of this taught 
the colonists that the foreign authority considered the colonies 
had no rights that it was bound to respect. Between the 
upper millstone of the king and the lower of parliament, their 
vested rights were being ground to powder. 

The victory of England and her American colonies over 
the French and Indians left Great Britain the ownership of 
a territory growing in population and prosperity, whose com- 
merce was of great value to the British tradesman. At the 
time of the revolution, this commerce of the colonies amounted 
in volume to nearly one-third of the entire English commerce 
with the world. To confine it to English greed was the pur- 
pose of the royal actions. The king believed if settlement 
went beyond the Alleghanies, it would go beyond the reach 
of English trade, would tempt the colonies to new alliances, 
and give them dangerous power. Hence, the colonies were 
forbidden to enter into that territory. 

Then began the series of added oppressions under George 
HI. The colonists were still loyal to the king and complained 
not of his sovereignty over them, but of the denial to them 
of the right of English citizens to representation in parlia- 
ment; of the denial of the right to make local laws whereby 
they were to be governed without misunderstood revision by 

33 



34 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

those who knew nothing of their situation; of being taxed 
without any voice by this foreign authority, and of the denial 
of the right to build up their trade with other and neighboring 
peoples. 

The increasing, profitable trade with Spain and France 
was placed under penalties so heavy as to utterly destroy it. 
"Warships patrolled the coast to prevent the vessels of these 
nations from coming to colonial ports. The famous — or rather 
infamous — Navigation Act, increased in severity by the re- 
strictions of subsequent acts, made England the only country 
where the American merchant could buy goods or ship 
products; in fact, the sole market for the American producer 
and merchant. 

Iron manufacture had started up in New England and 
Pennsylvania, but parliament prohibited the shipment of pig- 
iron even to England, and the manufacture of steel and bar 
iron for use here. The existing iron works were closed and 
the building of new works prevented by their being subject 
to destruction as nuisances. Lord Chatham, formerly Mr. 
William Pitt, one of the best and truest friends the colonists 
ever had;, said in Parliament : ' ' The British colonists of North 
America had no right to manufacture even a nail for a horse- 
shoe." The prohibition of shipping woolen goods from colony 
to colony was enacted. A similar one regarding hats was 
made because, it was claimed, the abundance of furs would 
soon enable the colonists to supply the world with hats. 
Duties were laid upon the importation of rum and molasses 
from the French and Spanish West Indies. Swarms of custom- 
house officers were sent over, who were empowered to search 
any house for smuggled goods, and writs of assistance were 
readily granted by the court under the domination of the Eng- 
lish government. Under the "Quartering Act," soldiers were 
sent over under the pretense of protecting the colonies, and 
the people were compelled to house and provision them. For 
any offense to the military, the accused were transported for 
trial to England, where they could not get witnesses, and an 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 35 

adverse verdict was certain. The odious ''Stamp Act" re- 
quired revenue stamps to be placed upon every legal docu- 
ment and article of merchandise. 

Between 1651 and 1774, twenty-nine different acts were 
passed by parliament, all lengthy and difficult of interpreta- 
tion, and all aiming to confine and restrict all our commerce to 
Great Britain, even to the exclusion of the colonies dealing 
with each other. If a merchant or farmer in Massachusetts 
wished to sell or trade his wares or produce to a neighbor 
just across the line in the next colony, he either had to ship 
them clear across the Atlantic to England and thence reship 
them back, or else pay a duty to the officer of royalty here. 
The tossing of several ship-loads of tea into Boston harbor by 
colonists disguised as Indians widened the growing breach, 
and inflamed the hostile feelings between the king and the 
colonists. The port of Boston was closed to all trade until 
they paid for this tea, and made required apologies to the 
king. Massachusetts appealed to her sister colonies to as- 
semble a congress and act in concert upon this state of affairs, 
and this appeal was promptly answered and acceded to. 

The war-cry of the colonists then became that tenet of political 
faith, for centuries and yet of universal adoption by the Anglo- 
Saxon race, "No taxation without representation," broadened by 
them into "No legislation without representation." 

In the evils growing out of the violation of this doctrine may 
be summed up all the causes of the Eevolution, a revolution not 
the least of whose beneficent fruits has been Great Britain's better 
government of all of her colonies, and the strengthening of her own 
empire in the enlargement of the liberties of her people. 




CHAPTER VIII 

EEVIEW 

iHE foregoing historic glance shows that the Chris- 
tian, liberty-loving people of every civilized race 
contributed to the foundation of this free republic ; 
it shows how deep and strong were the attachments 
of each colony to its peculiar ideas of what constituted indi- 
vidual right, and it explains, to an extent, the opposition to a 
national government which would be a supreme, central con- 
trol beyond the borders of the respective colonies. 

The tyrannies practiced by the sovereign powers in Eng- 
land were not only the unbearable reasons for the revolt of 
the colonies, but they were also the teachers that instilled 
into the American mind the fear of any sort of national 
sovereignty, a fear that descended into the hereditary doc- 
trine of state supremacy. These oppressions ground into the 
very souls of the colonists an educated dread of a distant, su- 
preme power. Their fear of and aversion to the establishment 
of any such consolidated power was well founded, as it was 
the fruit of decades of disastrous experience. To them a 
central authority was synonymous with the forceful violation 
of all rights and the baneful rule of might, regardless of 
policy, of law, of justice, and of humanity. This explains 
how the spirit of states' rights, or rather, state supremacy, 
survived until the dread arbitrament of arms established the 
supremacy of the government of the United States, the in- 
divisibility of the Union and the fact that we had become, if 
we had not always been since the adoption of the constitution, 
a nation. 

This shows, too, how long and painful a period elapsed — 
over a century and a half of practical experience in the elective 
franchise, and in legislation; nearly three-quarters of a cen- 

36 



REVIEW 37 

tury in intermittent warfare, acquainting them with the 
courage and discipline needed to face a foe — before, in the 
mysterious ways of an overruling Providence, the colonists 
were permitted to pursue the perilous paths of an independent 
people. 

Tenacious of their own peculiar views, as averse to enforc- 
ing them over others beyond their borders as to having the 
ideas of those others made controlling over them, the colonists 
desired distinct independence, yet with some sort of offensive 
and defensive league among themselves which would be su- 
preme when the supremacy of unity was needed, yet subordi- 
nate to themselves — a practical impossibility. 

With no railroads, no telegraphs, no communication save 
over dirt roads and by water, but few newspapers, and those 
of but limited circulation in their own localities, separated 
and surrounded by hostile savages, the colonists were as aliens 
to each other. Their commerce was almost wholly with those 
beyond the seas. Interstate business, commercial and personal 
relations, such as now exist, were then unknown and unantici- 
pated. The vista of the future opened up no such scene of 
splendid grandeur, of internal industrial activity, of foreign 
commercial aggression, as is witnessed to-day. 

The chords of kinship that now knit the various sections 
with tenderest, strongest bonds were few and slender. The 
colonists were aliens and strangers, though all owed allegiance 
to one common head. Ownership, individual and corporate, 
did not stretch from state to state, border to border, and 
section to section. The liberty-loving, fearless, pious people 
of every civilized race contributed to make this cosmopolitan 
country the welded power that it is, but furnished an antag- 
onism then that helped to draw the sections asunder. It is 
not to be wondered at that the formation of a supreme federal 
union was so difficult of accomplishment. To this day, with 
all our facilities of communication ; with all our interlocked 
interests that are impossible of severance without common 
disaster; with the most intimate and sacred ties of blood and 



38 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

family binding every part of the country ; with the tremendous 
acquaintance of universal travel, and every day's doings of 
the different sections known at once in every other, there are 
matters of local concern that violently estrange and bitterly 
antagonize. Diverse interests and clashing sentiments yet 
disturb our common harmony, and make the yoke that all bear 
with willing honor and enthusiastic devotion gall in places that 
it touches with unequal weight. On the other hand, there are 
/"many matters which are now of sovereign state control, such 
,* as marriage and divorce, inheritance, descent and distribution 
of property, and other vital concerns of common, universal 
interest, that make strenuous claims for uniform, national 
legislation. 

The distrust of the people felt in colonial times by many 
of the ablest and most philanthropic men who were leaders in 
public thoughts is dying away, and the power of the people 
is becoming ever greater. The choice of senators by a select 
body, for instance, is growing more and more obnoxious, and 
many advantages are loudly claimed in giving this choice 
directly to the people themselves. On the other hand, the 
fear of representatives long kept in public service is fading 
from the people, and extended periods of official life are 
known to have given greater influence to those of distinguished 
ability and irreproachable character, as well as better service 
to their constituents. 

Leader and led, the sources and representatives of political 
power, are growing nearer together, more trustful of each 
other in our national life. More and more the national repre- 
sentative is becoming sympathetic with the heart-beat of the 
represented. Congress, in early days, sat with closed doors, 
and its sessions were inviolately secret. To-day, the repre- 
sentative speaks not merely to his fellows in earshot, but to 
the whole country. His recall for transgression, or rather, 
the balking of any attempt at transgression, is far more 
prompt and effective than our fathers dreamed of. The in- 
stant indignation of the whole country would reach the capital 



EEVIEW 39 

on the eve of the attempt to subvert the liberties of the people, 
as seemed to be our fathers' constant fear, and thwart it in 
conception. The trouble now is, we know far more about our 
national affairs and take greater interest in them than in our 
state and municipal concerns. The fear and contempt for the 
national authority then felt is being transferred to the local. 
Every state and every section is equally loyal to an indis- 
soluble union, and bows with patriotic submission to the 
majority rule of a united people. Our national legislators 
clasp hands with a constituency that covers the whole coun- 
try. Leading states lend listening ears to the voice of their 
sister states when it comes to retaining or sending to our 
national councils congressmen who have shown a breadth of 
view that the whole country commends, and the people over- 
ride the combined power of politicians in the choice of him 
who is to head the government. More and more the question 
is becoming, not from what state does he hail but what sort of 
an American is he? Hand in hand, national and state sov- 
ereignty are marching their harmonious road to national, state, 
and individual welfare, and making the American system lead 
the world to that composite, welded community where ruler 
and ruled stand on common ground; where each state-com- 
munity is not only left to the independent control of its do- 
mestic affairs, its local concerns, but guaranteed security in 
that control; where local, personal predilections haVsC fullest 
respect; where no dead sameness enthralls, but diversity of 
effort in the personal participation of the various peoples in 
self-government may direct the highest development of all; 
where the observed progress of independent states stimulates 
effort; where universal justice and universal advancement are 
nearest attained; where, in the fruition of God's good time, 
all people may profit by the lesson of our Federal system, and 
the nations of the whole earth may establish some great 
tribunal by which all international questions may be decided 
— a genuine "Parliament of man, the Federation of the 
world. ' ' 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CONTINENTAL CONGEESS — THE DECLAEATION OF INDE- 
PENDENCE 



^HE oppressions common to all of the colonies had 
occasioned the formation in each of a "Committee 
of Correspondence," by which their grievances 
were discussed and concert of action agreed upon. 
The negotiations of these committees resulted in the first 
Continental Congress, composed of fifty-five elected members, 
which met in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, Monday, Sep- 
tember 5, 1774. The following were members: 




John Gilman, 



New Hampshire 

Nathaniel Folsom. 



John Adams, 
Samuel Adams, 



Massachusetts 



Thomas Cushing, 
Eobert Treat Paine. 



Silas Deane, 
Eliphalet Dyer, 



Stephen Hopkins, 



Connecticut 

Eoger Sherman. 

Ehode Island 

Samuel Ward. 



John Alsop, 
Simon Boerum, 
James Duane, 
William Floyd, 



New YorJc 



40 



John Hering, 
John Jay, 
Philip Livingston, 
Henry Wisner. 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGEESS 



41 



New Jersey 



Stephen Crane, 
John DeHart, 
James Kinsey, 



Edward Biddle, 
John Dickinson, 
Joseph Galloway, 
Charles Humphreys, 



Thomas McKean, 
George Eead, 

Samuel Chase, 
Thomas Johnson, 
Robert Goldsborough, 



Eichard Bland, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
Patrick Henry, 
Eichard Henry Lee, 



Eichard Caswell, 
Joseph Hewes, 



Christopher Gadsden, 
Thomas Lynch, 
Henry Middleton, 



William Livingston, 
Richard Smith. 



Pennsylvania 

Thomas Mifllin, 
John Morton, -* 
Samuel Rhodes, 
George Ross. 

Delaware 

Caesar Eodney. 



Maryland 



William Paca, 
Matthew Tilghman. 

Virginia 

Edmund Pendleton, 
Peyton Randolph, 
George Washington. 

North Carolina 

William Hooper. 

South Carolina 



Edward Rutledge, 
John Rutledge. 



Georgia 
Was not represented until September 13, 1775, when she sent: 



Dr. Wimberley Jones, 
Archibald Bullock, 



John Houstoun, 
Lyman Hall. 



Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was elected the first presi- 
dent, but being speaker of the Virginia assembly, he returned 



42 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FBAMEES 

home to attend the session called by Governor Dunmore to 
consider Lord North's "conciliatory proposition," and Thomas 
Jefferson was appointed to fill his place. 
The succeeding presidents were: 

Henry Middleton, of South Carolina; 
John Hancock, of Massachusetts; 
Henry Laurens, of South Carolina; 
John Jay, of New York; 
Samuel Huntington, of Connecticut; 
Thomas McKean, of Delaware; 
John Hanson, of Maryland; 
Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey; 
Thomas MifHin, of Pennsylvania; 
Eichard Henry Lee, of Virginia; 
Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts; 
Arthur St. Clair, of Pennsylvania; 
Cyrus Griffin, of Virginia — fourteen in all. 

John Hancock served through the second, third, fourth, 
fifth, and sixth sessions and was reelected at the eleventh, but 
did not serve on account of ill health. The vote was by states, 
each state having one vote. The vote of nine states was 
necessary to pass any measure. For this reason, many im- 
portant measures failed of passage. The proceedings of the 
congress were kept secret. The leaders were not yet ready 
to trust the people, or else feared the disclosure of what was 
done would hurt their cause. It became a revolutionary con- 
gress, and was merged into the Congress of the Confederation, 

The Continental Congress began as a peace congress and 
was a strenuous, concerted effort for justice and reconcilia- 
tion, not for independence. Its pathetic appeal to the king 
is on record as evidence of this, and the expressions of its 
leading men confirmed it. Here are the expressions of a few : 

Said Benjamin Franklin: "I had more than once traveled 
from one end of the country to the other, kept a variety of 
company, and never heard froni any person, drunk or sober, 
the least expression of a wish for separation." 

John Jay: "During the course of my life, and until the 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 43 

second petition of congress, in 1775, I never did hear an 
American of any class, or of any description, express a wish 
for separation. It has always been, and still is, my opinion 
and belief, that our country was prompted and impelled to 
independence by necessity, and not by choice." 

Thomas Jefferson: "What eastward of New York might 
have been the disposition toward England, before the com- 
mencement of hostilities, I know not ; but before that, I never 
heard a whisper of a disposition to separate from Great 
Britain, and after that, its possibility was contemplated with 
affliction by all." 

James Madison: "It has always been my impression that 
a reestablishment of the colonial relations to the parent 
country, as they were, previous to the controversy, was the 
real object of every class of the people, till they despaired of 
obtaining it." 

George Washington: "When I first took command of the 
continental army (1775), I abhorred the idea of independ- 
ence." 

The ripened growth of independence was the result of 
time and circumstance. So was, still later, the authoritative, 
permanent national government under the national constitu- 
tion, since it originated merely from an effort to amend the 
Articles of Confederation. So also was, still later, the emanci- 
pation of all slaves, and the universally accepted idea of the 
perpetual sovereignty of the United States as one consolidated 
nation. 

Lincoln said, he was "for saving the Union, with slavery, 
if that could be done, without slavery, if that must be done; 
but the Union first, last, and all the time." 

All these great events in our history were the culminations 
and the climaxes of crises, more the result of necessity than 
of any first intentions. The American people and the Conti- 
nental Congress that represented the state did not wish inde- 
pendence of the great nation for which they still cherished 
a filial affection. What they desired was an enlarged liberty 



44 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

of action bred by their very environment, born of their sense^ 
of their right of inheritance as English subjects and consonant 
with the laws of the sovereign power to which they bowed 
as citizen-subjects. 

Instead of wisely directing this sentiment of loyalty; in- 
stead of cultivating the idea that the colonists were children 
of the British ancestral home, though on distant shores; 
instead of heeding the masterly appeals of Burke and Pitt 
to honor and encourage the same spirit that had made Eng- 
land what it was; instead of recognizing the fact that the 
peculiar situation of the colonists made them the better 
judges of the peculiar needs of their locality — instead of doing 
these things, the English government pursued the very course 
to convince the colonists that they were considered to be a 
lower race than that of the mother country, that they existed 
solely to enrich the power they wished to honor, and to serve 
the people of which they desired to feel themselves a com- 
ponent part. 

The colonies first fought separately their own battles for 
their rights under their charters and as British subjects. 
When that proved fruitless, they combined as distinct states 
to secure those rights by joint efforts. "When united effort 
for their rights as British subjects gave no hope of success, 
they joined hands and leaped to the loftier plane of an inde- 
pendent people. Not until the second session of the Conti- 
nental Congress did the idea of independence possess that 
congress, and it is difficult now to realize by what a narrow 
margin the passage of the resolution for the declaration of 
independence was secured in that congress. 

In November, 1775, Pennsylvania, and in the following 
January Maryland and New Jersey, had all positively in- 
structed their delegates to vote against any proposal to sepa- 
rate from Great Britain. But the continued oppressions of 
the British government and the excesses of its representatives 
sent over, backed up by the conduct of the loyalists, native 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 45 

to the soil, who sided with them, fanned the kindling fires of 
freedom. 

Since Our Saviour shed His blood for man's redemption, 
no great cause has ever triumphed, no great right been made 
secure, no lasting principle placed on enduring basis, that 
has not been baptized in the blood of mankind. The blood 
of provincial patriots shed at Lexington settled the course of 
the colonies. 

On May 15, 1776, Virginia instructed her delegates to 
propose a Declaration of Independence. The famous Mecklen- 
burg declaration of North Carolina had been issued, and the 
same spirit was stirring through all the colonies. On June 7th, 
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved the adoption of the 
resolution: "That the united colonies are, and ought to be, 
free and independent states, and that their political connection 
with Great Britain is, and ought to be dissolved." 

This passed by a bare majority of the vote of one state, 
seven states voting for, six against it. The vote was cast by 
states. "When the state of Pennsylvania was reached, the 
vote stood even, and that state was equally divided, until John 
Morton cast the deciding ballot and carried the resolution. 
On this account, the subject was postponed until July 1st. 
Meantime, on June 11th, Lee having returned home on account 
of sickness, a committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John 
Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. 
Livingston, was appointed to prepare a formal declaration. 
This it reported, as drawn by Thomas Jefferson, on June 28th. 
Consideration of it was resumed, and, on that day, nine 
colonies supported it. By July 4th, Delaware, Pennsylvania, 
and South Carolina joined with the majority. The provincial 
assembly of New York on July 9th instructed the delegation 
from that state to sign it, and the action became unanimous. 
The declaration was then engrossed and signed by all of the 
delegates, except Thomas McKean, of Delaware, who signed 
in October, and Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire, who 
signed it in November. 



46 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

While it was being signed, one of the delegates remarked: 
"Now, we must all hang together," when Benjamin Franklia 
replied in grim humor: "Indeed we must, or assuredly, we 
shall all hang separately." 

Of the three hundred men who were members of the Conti- 
nental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation from 
first to last, most of them were prominent in the history of 
their states, and later in the history of the United States. 
Many of the ablest members were sent abroad on foreign mis- 
sions, or called into the military service. In a letter to Benja- 
min Harrison, Washington complained bitterly of the absence 
of such men from the congress, and suggested that the states 
enforce compulsory attendance of their best and strongest 
men. When a place in the national congress is the acme of 
the ambition of so many of the ablest men of our time, it is 
hard to believe it was so difficult to induce such men to accept 
similar positions at that time. But there was a large amount 
of human nature in the men of that day, as there always will 
be. At heart, they doubted the permanent success of the con- 
federation. Its helplessness from lack of coercive power made 
a position in it a place, not of accomplishment, but of criticism. 
The noblest ambitions and the best efforts can only be secured 
by a government of permanent authority. The states them- 
selves were permanent, sovereign organizations, and the man 
who looked for a secure future sought his work within his 
own state. 

From July 2, 1778, to June 21, 1783, the congress held one 
continuous session of 1816 days, the longest session known in 
American history. On September 3, 1783, the treaty of peace 
between Great Britain and the United States was signed, on 
the part of the former by David Hartley, of the latter by 
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, and the inde- 
pendence of the United States was acknowledged. 

Then began a struggle, almost as bitter and lasting nearly 
as long as the War of Independence, for a government that 
would secure and perpetuate what had been so grandly 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 47 

achieved. "When it is considered that, during this trying 
period, the government had really no executive head or 
judiciary, and was directed by a legislative body whose limits 
were ill defined and whose powers were simply those of per- 
suasion; when it is remembered that there was a constantly 
growing public debt, with an increasing uncertainty of its pay- 
ment, and no treasury; when it is realized that the govern- 
ment had no power to enforce observance by the states of its 
treaties with foreign powers, or of its demands for funds to 
meet obligations, our wonder grows that independence was 
ever accomplished, and we can but attribute it to a power 
beyond that of humanity. 

Washington wrote: "The Confederation seems to me to 
be but little more than a shadow without the substance, and 
Congress a nugatory body, their ordinances being but little 
attended to." 

In this day, when there is instant recognition in all sections 
and by all classes of the supremacy of the Federal authority, 
it is difficult to comprehend what little heed was given to that 
central power in that early day, and how its waning influence 
and its disregarded appeals made it an object of pitying 
ridicule. 




CHAPTER X. 

THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

^HE signers of the Declaration of Independence laid the 
foundations for free government, not only for their own 
country, but for the world. Their names and deeds be- 
long to all history. Their memories are and will be 
enshrined in the hearts of humanity. They knowingly dared more 
than life to proclaim principles that can never die. They well knew 
that if they failed they would suffer the loss of all they had, 
or ever v^^ould have. They faced the halter, and the infamy 
of condemned traitors, on the one hand; the immortal glory 
of liberty's patriot heroes, on the other. But they drew the 
inspiration of their action from a higher source than personal 
ambition. They were as unhindered by the promptings of 
personal fear as they were uninfluenced by the glare of indi- 
vidual glory. Never in the history of the human race did 
men rise to a greater height of self-immolation in a supreme 
sense of duty to right, to justice, to freedom, and to humanity. 
Never was a more devout appeal made by God-fearing men to 
the Almighty, to whom alone they bent the knee of adoration, 
for judgment upon the rectitude and sincerity of their un- 
selfish and perilous action. Never has that God so voiced in 
history Divine approval of mortal conduct. Their national 
achievement has been the admiration of and benediction to 
the world; manifold been the individual blessings to them, them- 
selves. Let the people of America realize from both that God rules 
in the affairs of men. 

The average life of these fifty-six men was sixty-five years. 
Four lived to be ninety, and upwards. Fourteen lived to be 
over eighty, and twenty-three to be over seventy years of age. 
The average life of the fourteen members of the New England 

48 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 49 

delegation was seventy-five years. The large majority of them 
were blest in basket and in store. Nearly every one of them 
was called to a lofty place of honor, and filled and left that 
place crowned with additional renown. That blessing has 
come down with their descendants. The history of their coun- 
try tells of their useful lives of honorable service. 

The two signers most intimately concerned in, and to whom 
the rest of the Committee appointed to prepare the Declara- 
tion of Independence referred its drafting, — John Adams and 
Thomas Jefferson, — became, successively. President of the 
United States, and died on the same day, fifty years to a day 
after that Declaration was made. 

One, Elbridge Gerry, became the sixth Vice-President. 

Eleven, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, Josiah Bartlett 
of New Hampshire, Button Gwinnett of Georgia, Joseph Hewes 
of North Carolina, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, Francis 
Ilopkinson of New Jersey, Thomas McKean of Delaware, 
Thomas Nelson of Virginia, Edward Rutledge of South Caro- 
lina, Eoger Sherman of Connecticut, and Thomas Stone of 
Maryland, were of the Committee that framed the Articles 
of Confederation, termed the first Constitution, that united 
the original thirteen states under a national government, 
called "The United States of America." 

Eight, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman 
of Connecticut, George Read of Delaware, George Wythe of 
Virginia, George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris 
and James Wilson of Pennsylvania, were among the framers 
of our present Constitution. 

Many of the others, by contributions to the press, in public 
address, and private discussion, developed public opinion in 
favor of our Constitution, paved the way for the Convention 
that framed it, as well as for the provisions it contains, and 
did heroic service in their respective states to secure its adop- 
tion when it was submitted therefor to the states. 

All may be said to have been among the founders of the 
Constitution that created a permanent National Government. 



50 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMEES 

A Constitution that grew by gradation, or successive steps, 
from Articles of Association to Articles of Confederation and 
finally to the crowning glory of the Constitution. Nor can 
the Declaration of Independence be left out of consideration 
as one of these vital steps. For, thereby, as Judge Drayton, 
of South Carolina, said from the bench, ''A decree is now 
gone forth not to be recalled, and thus has suddenly arisen 
in the world a new empire, styled the United States of 
America," and no such nation ever did or will exist without 
an established chart to hold and keep and guide. Without 
a precedent to teach, this chart, of necessity, had to be de- 
veloped by and formed from experience and exploration to 
lead to the haven destined by that Declaration. 

The following brief biographical sketches contain but little 
Inore than mere mention of the chief events in the careers of 
the fifty-six men who braved the fury of the most powerful 
nation on the earth to plant the standard of civil and religious 
liberty for all mankind. In their compilation liberal use has 
been made of Sanderson's great work, and additional data 
gathered from the records of the several states. The sketches 
are given in the order of the signatures to the Declaration, 
beginning with John Hancock, who was a delegate from 
Massachusetts, President of the Congress, and the first man 
whose signature was afiixed thereto. 

John Hancock. 

The delegates for Massachusetts who signed the Declara- 
tion of Independence were among the most eminent and 
efficient of Revolutionary patriots. Their lives epitomize, not 
only the origin, the progress and the end of the Revolution, 
but the foundation of our government. The first signer of 
that immortal document was the illustrious son of Massachu- 
setts, the President of the Congress,— JOHN HANCOCK. 

His life illustrates the good fortune that has so often fol- 
lowed the sons of ministers of the gospel, and points the moral, 
"If you would make a good man begin with his grandparents." 



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THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 51 

His grandfather was a clergyman. His father followed 
the same sacred calling. Both were noted for their devotion 
to public culture based upon moral training, as well as the 
piety and purity of their lives. 

His uncle, to whom he owed the direction of his lifework, 
by his own "yankee" shrewdness and indomitable energy rose 
to the rank of New England's foremost merchant. Nor was 
he solely a Napoleon of finance. He took an active part in 
the governmental life of the province, and efficiently filled 
many official stations. In educational advancement he was 
equally active, and founded a professorship in Harvard Col- 
lege, in one of whose buildings in golden letters his honored 
name attests the lasting gratitude of that great institution. 

At Quincy, Massachusetts, John Hancock was born, Janu- 
ary 12, 1737. 

His father died during his childhood. This wealthy uncle 
became his foster-father, directed his education, and made 
him his heir. 

He graduated at Harvard in 1754, and as a clerk entered 
his uncle's store to learn the details of the business from the 
ottom up. 

In 1760 he visited England, and witnessed the funeral of 
eorge II., and the coronation of George III. 

Keturning to Boston, upon the death of his uncle he, at 
le age of twenty-seven, succeeded to the ownership of a busi- 
3SS and fortune, said to have been the largest of any indi- 
vidual in Massachusetts, which his own good management 
greatly increased. 

With hereditary bent he took an active part in public 
affairs, and began his long official career as a selectman of 
Boston, which position he filled for many years. 

In 1766, with James Otis, Samuel Adams and Thomas 
Gushing, he was elected to the IMassachusetts general assembly. 

His service with distinction on many committees in that 
assembly, of some of which he was chairman, is not only proof 
of his painstaking industry, but of the fact that ability of the 



52 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

best, rather than adventitious fortune, made for him the high 
place he held among his cotemporaries. 

Massachusetts has ever worshipped at the shrine of intel- 
lect, of culture and character. No golden calf is known in the 
history of her public adoration. 

Hancock was a man of trained culture, of superior ora- 
torical ability, of rare good judgment, best of all, of good 
common sense. 

Such qualities, not his fortune, put him in the forefront of 
his state's and country's history. 

His great commercial business made the burdens imposed 
by the British government in duties upon importations a 
personal affliction, and he was among the first to join in organ- 
izing the associations that spread all over the colonies to re- 
taliate by prohibiting the importation of English goods. 

About his personalty centred two crucial events that pre- 
cipitated the revolution. 

One of his loaded vessels was seized, as claimed by him and 
his compatriots, in violation of the revenue laws, and placed 
under the guns of a British vessel. The people rose to resist 
what they felt to be an outrage, and they themselves went 
beyond the law when they beat the collector's officers, burned 
his boat, and wrecked the houses of the collector and many of 
his associates. 

While the colonial authorities justly condemned these 
riotous proceedings, they directed universal attention to Han- 
cock, and raised him in colonial esteem, but made him the 
object of British official wrath. 

On account of this incident, the governor had several regi- 
ments of British troops brought to Boston on the plausible, 
if not justifiable plea of maintaining order. This additionally 
irritated an already inflamed public feeling. 

On March 5, 1770, a party of these soldiers on parade in 
King street were assailed by and fired upon an assembly of 
citizens, killing some and wounding others. This became 
known as the ''Boston Massacre." 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 53 

Hancock was chairman of the committee that at first re- 
spectfully petitioned, at last peremptorily demanded of the 
governor the removal of these troops. 

This increased both the esteem held for him by his people, 
and the hostility to him by the British. 

The second was the British expedition to capture Hancock 
and Samuel Adams which resulted in the battle of Lexington 
and the actual inauguration of the revolution. 

The governor's proclamation after this battle, declaring 
the colony to be in rebellion, and offering amnesty to all who 
should return to British allegiance, save Hancock and Samuel 
Adams, made them popular idols. 

Men are often loved for the enemies they make. 

"With the rank of Colonel, he had been in command of the 
company that was the honorary guard of the governor, and 
when General Gage removed him, the entire company dis- 
banded. 

In 1774 he was unanimously elected president of the pro- 
vincial congress of Massachusetts, and in 1775 president of 
the Continental Congress, which position he was continued in 
until his retirement from that body in 1777 on account of ill 
health. 

His previous experience in public station peculiarly fitted 
him for the duties of these exalted offices, and he filled them 
to the praiseful satisfaction of the congresses over which he 
presided. 

It is said that when he affixed his bold and conspicuous 
signature to the Declaration of Independence he exclaimed, 
"There, George III. can read that without the aid of his spec- 
tacles." 

Others might have been pardoned had the revolution failed, 
but in that event that act meant confiscation of his vast estate 
and certain death for him. 

The Declaration, though signed by all the members of the 
Congress, was first published over the signature of Hancock, 



54 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

alone. This gave him additional prominence before the people 
of his day, friendly as well as hostile. 

Soon after his retirement from the Continental Congress 
he was chosen a member of the convention to frame a constitu- 
tion for the state of Massachusetts, in which he was con- 
spicuous for his efforts to place limitations upon the executive 
authority. His dread of power over the people somewhat ex- 
plains his reluctant attitude toward the ratification by his State 
of the Federal Constitution. 

In 1780 he was elected the first governor of Massachusetts, 
under its new constitution, and annually reelected until 1785, 
when he resigned. After two years' intermission he was re- 
elected, and remained governor until the close of his illustrious 
life. 

He was a fearless fighter, full of the courage of honest con- 
victions, and independent in all of his public acts. This filled 
his career with antagonisms. Like every positive character, 
he trod on some one's toes and criticisms were frequent. 

The discordant, anarchistic elements in Massachusetts, 
after the revolutionary war, helped by the spirit that war 
always engenders, wrought serious trouble, and sought to set 
at defiance all authority, if not to subvert the government. 
Fourteen of the leaders were sentenced to death for treason, 
but were pardoned by governor Hancock. 

This act of humanity brought down on him an avalanche 
of denunciation, but history applauds his clemency. 

He was radical in his State sovereignty views, from dread 
experience feared the tyranny of centralized power, and long 
hesitated to support the ratification of the Federal Constitu- 
tion by Massachusetts. 

Summoned, as governor, in a suit in the United States 
Court against the State of Massachusetts, he resisted the proc- 
ess of the Court, and this provoked one of the amendments 
to the Constitution of the United States. 

He married Miss Quincy, a member of one of Boston's 
most famous families. 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION 55 

They left no children, their only son dying in infancy. 

On October 8, 1793, in his fifty-fifth year, this sterling 
patriot was suddenly stricken down, and closed a career so 
full of crowded events, so replete with signal service to his 
fellows, his country, aye, to the world. 

He was above middle size, well proportioned, of somewhat 
haughty and austere demeanor, but benignant expression of 
countenance. 

His life habits and personal environment tended to alienate 
him from his plain, poor and republican countrymen. Says 
Sanderson, "His equipage was magnificent. His apparel sump- 
tuously embroidered with gold, silver and lace, and decked by 
such other ornaments as were fashionable among men of for- 
tune of that day. He rode, especially upon public occasions, 
with six beautiful bays, and with servants in livery. He was 
graceful and prepossessing in manners, and very passionately 
addicted to what are called the elegant pleasures of life, to 
dancing, music concerts, routs, assemblies, card parties, rich 
wines, social dinners and festivities." 

These brought about an estrangement between him and 
that compatriot with whom his name will always be linked 
by the British government 's common outlawry, poverty-ridden, 
giant, brained and rugged Samuel Adams. These two men, 
so kindred in common purpose, pure patriotism and love of 
liberty, were the very antitheses in life habits. 

British venom, making of him a special target, helped to 
turn the sentiment against him on account of his undoubted 
aristocratic tastes, and made of him a hero with the colonists 
and the generations that follow them. 

He was intensely ambitious, and bitterly disappointed at 
not being chosen Commander in Chief when Washington was 
selected. Though a proud man, he was an unselfish patriot. 
When, in 1775, it was proposed to bombard Boston, though it 
would have resulted in greater personal loss to him than to 
any other owner of property in it, he begged that no regard 
be paid to the consequences personal to him. And it is due 



56 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

to say that perhaps no man of his day gave so liberally of his 
private fortune to aid his distressed countrymen and im- 
poverished country. 

In the stirring events that preceded the revolution he was 
one of the most active and influential of the Sons of Liberty. 
In his state's and country's Councils able, industrious and of 
tireless energy. 

As long as the Declaration of Independence is cherished, 
his memory will be revered and Americans pay the homage 
of their heartfelt honor to the first bold name it bears, — 

JOHN HANCOCK. 

For New Hampshire. 
Josiah Bartlett. 

The Bartlett family trace their lineage back to the Norman 
conquest of England. 

The founder of the American Branch came to Massachu- 
setts in the seventeenth century. 

Josiah Bartlett was born at Amesbury, Massachusetts, 
November 21, 1729, was educated in the common schools, 
studied medicine, and became eminent as a physician. 

He made a number of important discoveries in the use of 
Peruvian bark in various diseases, and from his own rash ex- 
periment in allaying his thirst with cider while suffering from 
a raging fever, he went out of the beaten track in medicine 
to the enlargement of his profession's beneficial activity. 

His sound judgment, and conspicuous ability led to his 
appointment as a magistrate, and to the command of a regi- 
ment of militia, in both of which positions duty well done led 
to higher things. 

In 1765 he was elected representative for Kingston in the 
New Hampshire provincial legislature, where he led the 
minority in opposition to the abuses of the royal governor, 

The governor, taking discretion to be the better part of 
valor, to placate or bribe him, appointed him a justice of the 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 57 

peace, but Bartlett was of another build, and subsequently 
had the honor of being dismissed from his positions as justice 
and commander of the militia by the governor who failed to 
purchase his loyalty with official position. 

In 1775 he was put on the Committee of Safety, and was 
now with the majority in the Legislature. That year the gov- 
ernor retired to Boston, and after ninety-five years British 
rule ended in New Hampshire. 

The same year he was placed in command of a regiment by 
the provincial congress, and elected to the Continental Con- 
gress. He was reelected, and made one of the Committee to 
prepare the Articles of Confederation. 

On the vote for the Declaration of Independence, his was 
the first name called and vote cast, and his the first signature 
after that of John Hancock, the president of that Congress. 

What prouder place, or nobler record could an American 
prize ! 

He did not return to the congress until 1778, in the mean- 
time being busily engaged in providing troops and supplies 
for the gallant General Stark at Bennington, and discharging 
his duties as Naval agent, to which position the congress had 
assigned him. 

On his return to Philadelphia he found that while the 
British had occupied it they had introduced, as a temptation, 
considerable of fashion. The tory families gorgeously arrayed 
the female members, while the men, as usual, not a whit be- 
hind, discarded their round for three-cornered hats. 

What part Bartlett had in it history does not tell, but the 
patriots, firm believers in the simple life and republican plain- 
ness, dressed a negro woman in the full costume of a royal 
lady, and seated her where the fashionables were wont to 
display their finery, and then carried her through the city, to 
the ridicule and mortification of the apers of English aristoc- 
racy. 

In 1779 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of 



58 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Common Pleas; in 1782 a justice of the Superior Court, and 
in 1788 its Chief Justice. 

He was a zealous advocate in the New Hampshire conven- 
tion for the ratification of the Constitution of the United 
States, and was elected to the United States Senate on the 
formation of the Union, but declined the office. 

In 1790 he was elected president of New Hampshire, and 
in 1793 the first governor of the state, which position he re- 
signed in 1794. The next year, May 19, 1795, at Kingston, 
New Hampshire, he closed his busy life of high and useful 
honor. 

His wife was a Miss Bartlett, of Kingston, one of the revo- 
lutionary mothers noted for her devotion to God and her 
country, a fit companion for her illustrious husband. Their 
sons have been distinguished in New Hampshire, history. 

In his funeral sermon. Dr. Thayer thus summed up his 
virtues : 

"He was a man of stern patriotism and inflexible repub- 
licanism. His mind was quick and penetrating, his memory 
tenacious, his judgment sound. His natural temper was open, 
humane and compassionate. In all his dealings he was scrupu- 
lously just, and faithful in all his engagements. These brilliant 
talents, combined with distinguished probity, recommended 
him early in life to the esteem and confidence of his fellow- 
eitizens. But few persons, by their own merits, and without 
the influence of family or party connections, have, like him, 
risen from one degree of confidence to another and fewer still 
have been the instances, in which a succession of honorable 
and important offices have been held by any man with less 
envy, or executed with more general approbation." 

William Whipple. 

William Whipple was born in Kittery, Maine, January 14, 
1730. 

His father was a seafaring man, and he followed in the 
same calling. He was educated in the public schools of the 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 59 

town, where in addition to elementary studies he was taught 
navigation, and at an early age shipped before the mast on 
a merchant vessel. Before reaching majority he became cap- 
tain and made a number of voyages to foreign parts. 

His early life was an utter contradiction to the sentiment 
of the Declaration of Independence which he signed, and to 
the cause in which he consecrated his best efforts and staked 
his own life. He was a slave trader, and amassed a fortune 
in importing slaves from Africa to this country. 

The influence of environrnent is all powerful. Pursuits 
authorized by law, if largely engaged in, dull the edge if not 
make dormant the conscience. 

In 1759 he abandoned the sea and went into business in 
Portsmouth with his brother. 

The family had been prominent in the mercantile life of 
the colony, and he maintained its high reputation for business 
sagacity. 

Early in the contest between the colonies and Great Britain 
he took an active part in behalf of his native people, and en- 
joying their highest confidence was frequently elected to 
public office. In January, 1775, he was elected a representative 
of the town of Portsmouth to the Provincial Congress, by 
which he was placed upon the committee of safety, and was 
also placed upon the similar committee for his home town. 

In the latter part of 1775 New Hampshire established a 
government for itself consisting of a house of representatives 
and a council of twelve, the president of which was practically 
the president of the state. He was chosen as one of the council 
in January, 1776, and the same month elected a delegate to the 
Continental Congress, in which he was continued a member 
until 1779. 

During the several sessions of congress that he was a mem- 
ber he displayed much ability in committee work, and his 
practical experience as a sailor made him a useful member of 
the committees of marine and of commerce, as well as one 



60 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

of the superintendents of the commissary and quarter master 
departments. 

As the business men of the period universally did, he 
strenuously opposed the use of paper money, contending that 
it not only debased the currency, but public morals. So great- 
ly had the vast volume of paper money depreciated the cur- 
rency that he stated in congress that it cost him one hundred 
dollars to put a cord of wood in his yard. 

In 1777, while yet a congressman, he was called into the 
military service as commander of one of the two brigades 
raised by New Hampshire, the other being commanded by the 
celebrated General John Stark, and sent against General 
Burgoyne on the western frontier. At Bennington they met 
and defeated Burgoyne, much to his surprise and the encour- 
agement of the Americans. 

The inspiring effect of the successful valor of the provincial 
militia increased volunteers from all parts of New Hampshire, 
and in the desperate battles of Stillwater and Saratoga, the 
"New Hampshire boys" became a distinguished part of the 
American army. 

"When Burgoyne surrendered. General Whipple with 
Colonel Wilkinson, represented General Gates in meeting two 
officers representing General Burgoyne to prepare the Articles 
for surrender. General Whipple was selected as one of the 
officers under whose command the captured British troops were 
put under guard near Boston. 

On his way to this campaign General Whipple was at- 
tended by a valuable negro servant named Prince, whom he had 
imported from Africa many years before. He told this servant 
that when they engaged in the battle he expected him to fight 
bravely for his country, when Prince replied, "Sir, I have no 
inducement to fight; but if I had my liberty, I would defend 
it to the last drop of my blood." General Whipple at once 
gave him his freedom and Prince did as gallant service as 
any American soldier in these bloody battles. 

Upon his retirement from Congress in 1780, he was elected 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION Ql 

a member of the legislature of New Hampshire, to which office 
he was repeatedly reelected. 

In 1782 he was made superintendent of finance and receiver 
for the state of New Hampshire by the Congress. This posi- 
tion required men of tried integrity and unquestioned patriot- 
ism. It was a most disagreeable place, as the collection of 
money for public necessities from an impoverished people was 
difficult and unpopular. 

In 1782 he was made one of the commissioners to settle the 
dispute between the states of Connecticut and Pennsylvania 
concerning lands in the Wyoming Valley in connection with 
Welcome Arnold, David Brearley, William Churchill Houston, 
and Cyrus Griffin. General Whipple was chosen president of 
this high tribunal and performed his duties with great ability, 
impartiality and moderation. The commissioners unanimously 
decided that the state of Connecticut had no right to the lands 
in controversy. 

At this time severe physical affliction forced him to decline 
further military command. 

In June, 1782, he was appointed a Judge of the Superior 
Court. It was the custom at that time to select members of 
that Court from those who were distinguished for sound judg- 
ment and integrity, but were not lawyers, as well as lawyers. 
This position he held, traveling the circuits with the Court 
for two or three years. 

In December, 1784, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace 
and Quorum throughout the state, under the new constitution, 
in which position he served until his death, November 28, 1785. 

He had been a grievous sufferer from heart disease and 
directed that his body be examined for the benefit of medical 
science, which was done, and it was found that ossification of 
the heart had taken place and caused his death, so that he 
not only devoted his life but gave his body thereafter to the 
service of his fellows. This should atone for his being a slave 
trader. 

From cabin boy, by force of his own industry, integrity and 



62 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

ability he rose to be a congressman, a commander and a 
judge. He distinguished himself in all of these positions and 
was as noted for his modesty as he was for his coolness and 
intrepid courage; for his fairness, his justice, his impartiality 
and for the manly virtues which make his memory cherished 
as one of the heroes whose labors in our highest halls of 
legislature and in most honorable places on the field of battle 
made him one of the founders of our free republic. 

Matthew Thornton. 

Matthew Thornton was another reason for America's grate- 
ful honor of Ireland, where he was born in 1714. 

His father, James Thornton, in 1717 came to Maine, re- 
moving a few years thereafter to "Worcester, Massachusetts, 
where he educated his son. 

Having completed his medical studies, Matthew located in 
Londonderry, New Hampshire, a town settled by natives of 
his ancestral island, where he soon acquired a large and lucra- 
tive practice. 

In the expedition against Cape Breton in 1745, he served 
as a surgeon in the New Hampshire division of the army, con- 
sisting of five hundred men, and his skillful service is shown 
by the fact that of that number but six were lost by disease, 
despite the hardships and exposure to which they were sub- 
jected. 

In 1775 he held the rank of Colonel in the provincial militia, 
and was also a justice of the peace. When the new colonial 
government that year supplanted British rule the first pro- 
vincial assembly elected him president, and as .such, on June 2, 
he signed the famous address of the provincial congress to the 
people of the colony that allied it with the immortal thir- 
teen. 

In January, 1776, he was elected speaker of the assembly 
under the new state government, organized pursuant to the 
advice of the Continental Congress, and in September was 
elected to represent New Hampshire in that Congress, thereby 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 63 

gaining the glorious privilege of affixing the last signature to 
the document he and his state indorsed, though he did not have 
the opportunity to vote in its favor. 

He continued a member of the Congress until January, 
1778, when he returned to resume his judicial duties in his 
state, having been, previous to his election to congress, ap- 
pointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and a 
Judge of the Superior Court. 

Removing to Exeter in 1779, for several years he was one 
of the selectmen of the town; served as a member of the gen- 
eral court ; was a senator in the state legislature ; in 1784 was 
appointed a justice of the peace and quorum throughout the 
state under the new constitution ; and in 1785 was made a 
member of the council under the presidency of the distin- 
guished John Langdon. 

His wit and humor made his company eagerly sought. As 
a "story teller" of apt illustration he was the Lincoln of his 
day in New Hampshire, and famous beyond even its borders 
for his illustration by fable, while the keenness of his satire 
made him one not to be attacked with impunity. 

He was a constant reader from youth to age ; therefore a 
source of instructive information to his wide circle of ac- 
quaintances. 

While close in money matters, he was ever ready to con- 
tribute to his country's cause, and was one of those in whom 
Washington reposed fullest confidence. 

He was a man of powerful frame, over six feet in height, 
and symmetrically proportioned, dark complexion, black hair 
and eyes, and while noted for his hilarious humor in speech 
and writing, was known as the man who read much and never 
smiled. 

He died in his eighty-ninth year, June 24, 1803, at Newbury- 
port. New Hampshire, and on the marble which covers his 
patriotic dust, to his name and age one line is added, "An 
Honest Man." 



64 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

For Massachusetts. 
Samuel Adams. 

The biography of Samuel Adams would be the history of 
the causes and course of the American Revolution. 

Denounced by the British authorities of his day as the 
"Arch Manager" and "Chief Incendiary," he was christened 
by his fellows with the glorious title he will bear for all time, 
"Father of the American Revolution." 

His family, traceable for six centuries to Welsh origin, was 
one of the oldest of Massachusetts, and has been one of the 
most, if not the most, famous in American annals. 

He was born in Boston, September 22, 1722, and graduated 
at Harvard in 1740. The passion of his college life was the 
history of the Republics of Greece and Rome. 

In 1743 his master's oration was affirming the proposition, 
"Whether it be lawful to resist the Supreme Magistrate, if 
the Commonwealth cannot be otherwise preserved." 

There in the presence of the British authority, represented 
by the Governor and Council, was first asserted the right to 
resist oppression by this apostle of American liberty, who be- 
came the chief star in the galaxy of our great republic a third 
of a century later. 

Thirty-three years before the Declaration of Independence, 
twenty-two before the Stamp Act, when Washington, John 
Adams, John Hancock, Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry 
were boys, before Jefferson, Gerry and Quincy were born, he 
sounded the keynote of his life that in his maturity swelled to 
a trumpet blast to all America, brought on him Great Britain's 
decree of an outlaw, and crowned him with his country's 
wreath of eternal honor. 

The actual thought of his theme was the preservation of the 
rights of the colonies by resisting, by force if need be, the 
growing infringement of colonial rights by the British au- 
thorities. From that day he became the most fearless, per- 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 65 

sistent and ultimately the most famous advocate of those 
rights, not only in New England, but all America. 

It was about the same time that his first publication, en- 
titled "Englishmen's Rights," appeared, in which he asserted 
that the same rights belonged to the subjects of the King, 
whether they lived in the ancient realm or in one of its col- 
onies. 

There was somewhat of heredity in his intense interest in 
political affairs. His father before him had always taken an 
active part in the politics of Boston and the colony, and was a 
member of the provincial legislature. It is said in 1724, or 
earlier, he with some twenty others, principally ship building 
mechanics, organized a club, where public matters were dis- 
cussed and men selected as nominees for office. They met in 
the ship-calkers' shed. As time wore on this club became the 
chief educator of sentiment in favor of popular rights. The 
Tories derisively designated it the "Calkers' Club," and the 
meetings, "Calkers' Meetings." 

From "calkers" to "caucus" these meetings came to be 
called, and thus originated the word, caucus, since in universal 
use. 

He inherited his father's business, that of a brewer, but 
had no aptitude whatever for business, and made a failure of 
it. His whole mind, heart and soul were wrapped up in the 
cause of the colonists, and he became one of, if not the most 
influential of the writers of his day in their behalf. 

He was a man of purest morality, of sincere piety, who 
feared naught but his God, and with fearless vigor devoted his 
life to its dominant idea — civil and religious liberty. 

Wealth had no temptation for him. In contented poverty 
he fought the great battle for his country. In fact, only by 
the industry and economy of his wives was his family enabled 
to maintain the most frugal existence. 

His first wife, Elizabeth Checkley, daughter of the pastor 
of the New South Church, Boston, he married in 1749. His 



66 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

ti'lbu+e to her virtues, Christian graces and economy is recorded 
by him in the family Bible, upon her death in 1757. 

His second wife, Elizabeth Wells, daughter of a merchant, 
whom he married in 1764, survived him some five years. She 
was in full sympathy with his life-ambition and life-work, and 
with uncomplaining fidelity cheerfully bore the hard lot of the 
impoverished revolutionary wife and mother, while he gave 
the fruits of his talents to his fellow countrymen. 

He had neither profession, trade nor fortune. His income 
was solely from his public offices, first as tax collector, there- 
after as member and clerk of the legislature, which positions 
he held for many years, in congress, and as Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor and Governor in his old age. He may have realized 
something from his contributions to the press, but it could 
have been but a mere pittance. 

Fifteen years, or more, before the revolution he became, as 
it were, a missionary in forming friendships with the bright- 
est of the prominent young men of his colony and imbuing 
them with his own high sense of their rights as English sub- 
jects, if not citizens. At the same time he was moulding the 
sentiment of the hardy seafaring men, the mechanics and 
laboring men, whom he always met in friendly sympathy and 
with whom his influence was greater than that of any other 
public character of the period. 

In 1764 it was learned that Parliament proposed to raise 
a revenue for the crown by taxing the colonies. This aroused 
intense feeling in all of them. Instead of the referendum, now 
so much discussed, it was the custom then for the people, by 
committees, in advance to give written instructions to their 
representatives. Those instructions for that year were drafted 
by him, adopted by the town meeting, and published in the 
Boston "Gazette." This, the first publication by authority 
of the people to deny the right of Parliament to tax the colo- 
nists without their consent, and to call for the united action 
of all the colonies was in part as follows : 

"These proceedings may be preparatory to "■" w taxes: for, 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION G7 

if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the 
produce of our lands and everything we possess or use ? This, 
we conceive, annihilates our charter-rights to govern and tax 
ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which, as we 
have never forfeited, we hold in common with our fellow 
subjects, who are natives of Britain. If taxes are laid upon 
us, in any shape, without our having a legal representation 
where they are laid, we are reduced from the character of free 
subjects to the state of tributary slaves. We, therefore, earn- 
estly recommend it to you to use your utmost endeavors to 
obtain, from the general court, all necessary advice and in- 
struction, to our agent, at this most critical juncture. We 
also desire you to use your endeavors that the other colonies, 
having the same interests and rights with us, may add their 
weight to that of this province; that by united application 
of all who are aggrieved, all may obtain redress." 

The very same contention that he made against the illegal 
taxation of the colonists was made by Lord Chatham, when, 
in 1763, he denounced the illegal taxation of British subjects 
on British soil and gave utterance to this, one of the most 
eloquent passages in English forensic history — ''The poorest 
man in his cottage may bid defiance to the forces of the crown. 
It may be frail ; its roof may leak ; the wind may blow through 
it; the storm may enter it; but the King of England cannot 
enter it! All his power dares not cross the threshold of that 
ruined tenement ! " 

It was due to his efforts that the Stamp Act Congress was 
assembled, the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence 
organized, and the non-importation agreements entered into. 
From 1765 to 1774 he was a member of the Massachusetts As- 
sembly, several times elected president of its senate and clerk 
of its house. During all these years every important measure 
was in part his production. Learning of his influence and pov- 
erty, and feeling the effects of his activity, it was suggested 
by someone in British authority that he be quieted by office or 



gg THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

employment — in short, a bribe. To this suggestion Governor 
Hutchinson wrote : 

"Such is the obstinacy and inflexible disposition of the man, 
that he never can be conciliated by any office or gift what- 
ever." 

Where temptation could not seduce, coercion was at- 
tempted, and his salary as clerk of the house of representatives, 
his principal means of support was cut off. This but added 
fuel to the fire of his zeal and increased the public regard for 
him. 

On the occurrence of the ''Boston Massacre," the people 
assembled and were addressed by him. A committee was ap- 
pointed to request Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson to order 
the removal of the British troops from the town. The request 
was denied. Adams was made chairman of a second com- 
mittee. To Hutchinson's temporizing evasiveness and promise 
to remove one of the regiments Adams rose with commanding 
firmness and said : 

"If he had the power to remove one regiment, he had the 
power to remove both, and nothing short of this would satisfy 
the people ; and it was at his peril, if the vote of the town was 
not immediately complied with, and if it were longer delayed, 
he alone must be answerable for the fatal consequences that 
would ensue." 

Hutchinson, knowing the lion-like courage of the man 
who, with flaming countenance and flashing eyes faced him, 
cowered before him and promised their prompt removal. 

Governor Gage decided to try if he could not terrorize or 
buy him into submission, and for that purpose sent Colonel 
Fenton to confer with him. 

History gives this account of the conference. Colonel Fen- 
ton stated : 

"That it was the advice of Governor Gage to him not to 
incur the further displeasure of his majesty; that his conduct 
had been such as made him liable to the penalties of an act 
of Henry VIII. by which persons could be sent to England for 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 69 

trial of treason, or misprision of treason, at the discretion of a 
governor of a province; but by changing his political course 
he would not only receive great personal advantages but would 
thereby make his peace with the king. Mr. Adams listened 
with apparent interest to this recital. He asked Colonel Fenton 
if he would truly deliver his reply as it should be given. After 
some hesitation he assented. Mr. Adams required his word of 
honor, which he pledged. Then rising from his chair, and as- 
suming a determined manner, he replied, 'I trust I have long 
since made my peace with the King of Kings. No personal 
consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause 
of my country. Tell Governor Gage it is the advice of Samuel 
Adams to him no longer to insult the feelings of an exas- 
perated people." 

On this account Governor Gage issued his famous procla- 
mation offering pardon to all who should submit: 

''Excepting only from the benefit of such pardon, Samuel 
Adams and John Hancock, whose offenses are of too flagitious 
a nature to admit of any other consideration but that of con- 
dign punishment." 

"When it was decided to call the Continental Congress in 
1774, he was a member of the assembly, and knew full well 
the need of boldness and secrecy to succeed in sending to it 
delegates from Massachusetts. For this purpose a canvas was 
made of a sufficient number of patriots to pass the resolutions 
to authorize these delegates to attend and act for Massa- 
chusetts. When the time for action came the doorkeeper was 
ordered to suffer no one to enter or leave the hall, and for 
better security Adams locked the door and put the key in his 
pocket. The resolutions were passed, Samuel Adams, Thomas 
Cushing, Robert Treat Paine, John Adams and James Bowdoin 
elected delegates, the expense estimated and funds for payment 
thereof voted. 

The loyalist members were dumbfounded. Feigning sick- 
ness, one of them was allowed to leave, hurried to the Gov- 
ernor and informed him of the audacity of what was being 



70 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

done. Governor Gage at once sent his Secretary to dissolve 
the Assembly, but that worthy was unable to enter the As- 
sembly room, and read the Governor's order from the steps. 
Their work accomplished, the Assembly obeyed the Governor's 
mandate and dissolved. 

For the next seven years Adams was continued a member 
of that Congress. To give his part in it would be to write its 
history. 

Of all its members, he was one whose confidence in ultimate 
victory never waned, whose zeal never flagged. 

History tells how difficult it was to secure the vote for 
independence. State instructions against it barred the action 
of some who were as thoroughly convinced as he that inde- 
pendence was the only path to civil and religious liberty; the 
only escape from subjection that equaled abject slavery. The 
cautious prudence of others held their action in check, though 
their convictions were the same. The timidity of a few added 
to their hesitation. The natural love of some for their an- 
cestral land restrained them. To pass the resolution and fail 
to sustain it meant death as a traitor to every man who voted 
for it. All these influences combined to delay, if not prevent 
a favorable vote. 

At this supreme hour of American history he rose to the 
supreme height of his life. With tireless energy and cease- 
less activity in public address of fervid eloquence and impas- 
sioned personal appeal all his tremendous powers of head and 
heart were exerted on the wavering, the weak and the doubt- 
ful to consummate the achievement his life was devoted to 
with the faith of a martyr and the zeal of utmost conscientious 
conviction. It is safe to say that but for the herculean efforts 
of this one man the resolution to declare our independence 
would never have been carried when it was, if it ever would 
have been. 

Thoroughly convinced that, while he who doubted might 
not be a dastard, he who doubted and delayed was damned and 
the cause of freedom with him, he crowded every hour with 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 71 

argument and appeal until the crisis of his and his country's 
life was crowned with success. 

His outburst in support of the Declaration of Independence, 
"If nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand perish, 
let us persist in the struggle," was no mere passionate utter- 
ance but his sincere sentiment. 

Said John Adams, his distant relative, "If the American 
Revolution was a blessing and not a curse, the name and char- 
acter of Samuel Adams ought to be preserved. It will bear a 
strict and critical examination even by the inveterate malice 
of his enemies." 

Josiah Quincy said that many in England considered him 
the first politician in the world. 

Said George Bancroft: "He was a masterly statesman, 
and the ablest political writer in New England. No blandish- 
ments of flattery could lull his vigilance, no sophistry deceive 
his penetration. Difficulties could not discourage his decision, 
nor danger appall his fortitude. He never, from jealousy, 
checked the advancement of others; and in accomplishing 
great deeds he took to himself no praise. Seeking fame as 
little as fortune, and office less than either, he aimed steadily 
at the good of his country and the best interests of mankind. 
For himself and for others he held that all sorrows and all 
losses were to be encountered, rather than that liberty should 
perish." 

In a work upon the "American Rebellion," published by 
Mr. Galloway in London in 1780, it is said of Samuel Adams : 

"He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, thinks much, and 
is most indefatigable in the pursuit of his object. It was this 
man who, by his superior application, managed at once the 
factions in congress at Philadelphia and the factions of New 
England. ' ' 

He has always been understood to have been the leader, if 
not organizer, of the celebrated "Boston Tea Party," who, 
dressed as Indians, emptied the cargoes of tea into the harbor 
of Boston. (The last survivor of this "Tea Party," Father 



72 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMEES 

Kennison, died in Chicago, Illinois, at the remarkable age of 
nearly one hundred and sixteen years, and near his grave in 
Lincoln Park the Sons of the American Revolution and the 
Daughters of the American Revolution joined in erecting a 
monument in 1903.) 

The year 1777 was one of the gloomiest of the war. The 
congress had dwindled to twenty-eight members in attendance 
when safety forced it to adjourn from Philadelphia to Lan- 
caster. 

At a meeting of several of its leaders the conversation 
showed how hopeless and despondent they were. Adams was 
the only cheerful one of all, and in answer to their forebodings 
said: 

''Gentlemen, your spirits appear to be heavily oppressed 
with our public calamities. I hope you do not despair of our 
final success?" It was answered, ''That the chance was des- 
perate." Mr. Adams replied, "If this be our language, it is so, 
indeed. If we wear long faces they will become fashionable. 
The people take their tone from ours, and if we despair, can it 
be expected that they will continue their effort in what we 
conceive to be a hopeless cause? Let us banish such feelings, 
and show a spirit that will keep alive the confidence of the 
people, rather than damp their courage. Better tidings will 
soon arrive. Our cause is just and righteous, and we shall 
never be abandoned by Heaven while we show ourselves 
worthy of its aid and protection." 

His words were almost prophetic. Within a few days the 
news arrived of the glorious success of our cause at Saratoga, 
which gave brightness to our prospects and confidence to our 
hopes. 

When peace was concluded he was one of the first to plead 
for such dignity of action by the United States as would pre- 
serve and give stability and honor to what had been achieved. 
Said he : 

"The name only of independence is not worth the blood 
of a single citizen, A navy must support our independence. 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 73 

This must hereafter be maintained, under God, by the wisdom 
and vigor of their own councils and their own strength. Their 
policy will lead them, if they mean to form any connexion 
with Europe, to make themselves respectable in the eyes of the 
nations, by holding up to them the benefits of their trade. 
Trade must be so free to all as to make it the interest of each 
to protect it till they are able to protect it themselves. This 
the United States must do by a navy. Till they shall have 
erected a powerful navy they will be liable to insults which 
may injure and depreciate their characters as a sovereign and 
independent state ; and while they may be incapable of resist- 
ing it themselves, no friendly power may venture to, or can, 
resent it on their behalf. The United States must, then, build 
a navy. They have, or may have, all the materials in plenty. 
But what will ships of war avail them without seamen? And 
where will they find a nursery for seamen but in the fishery?" 

In the Massachusetts convention called to pass upon the 
adoption of the Constitution he long hesitated to give his 
favorable support because he felt it injudiciously lessened the 
powers of the States. Some of the amendments proposed by 
him were adopted in the first ten amendments thereto. With 
this in view he helped secure its adoption. Concerning this 
he wrote : 

''I was particularly afraid that, unless great care should 
be taken to prevent it, the constitution in the administration 
of it would gradually but swiftly and imperceptibly run into a 
consolidated government, pervading and legislating through 
all the states, not for federal purposes only, as it professes, 
but in all cases whatsoever; such a government would soon 
totally annihilate the sovereignty of the several states so neces- 
sary to the support of the confederated commonwealth, and 
sink both in despotism. I mean, my friend, to let you know 
how deeply I am impressed with a sense of the importance of 
amendments; that the good people may clearly see the dis- 
tinction, for there is a distinction, between the federal powers 
vested in congress and the sovereign authority belonging to 



74 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

the several states, which is the palladium of the private and 
personal rights of the citizens." 

In his inaugural address as Governor he said : 

''It is enjoined by the constitution to make a declaration 
upon oath, and I shall do it with cheerfulness, because the in- 
junction accords with my own judgment and conscience 'that 
the commonwealth of Massachusetts is and of right ought to 
be a free, sovereign, and independent state.' I shall also be 
called upon to make another declaration with the same sol- 
emnity 'to support the constitution of the United States.' I 
see the consistency of this, for it cannot but have been intended 
that these constitutions should mutually aid and support each 
other. It is my humble opinion that, while the commonwealth 
of Massachusetts maintains her own just authority, weight and 
dignity, she will be among the firmest pillars of the federal 
union. May the administration of the federal government, 
and those of the several states of the Union, be guided by the 
unerring finger of heaven ! Each of them, and all of them, 
united will then, if the people are wise, be as prosperous as the 
wisdom of human institutions and the circumstances of human 
society will admit." 

In 1797 he received fifteen of the electoral votes of Virginia 
for President, while her own son, Thomas Jefi^erson, received 
twenty. 

He was one of the most devoted followers of Jefferson's 
political policy. 

In 1789 he was elected Lieutenant Governor and held that 
office until 1794, when he succeeded Hancock as Governor of 
Massachusetts, and was annually reelected until his retirement 
from public life in 1797. 

He died October 2, 1803. 

Says an early and one of his great biographers : 

"In person he was of the middle size, with a countenance 
full of expression, and showing the remarkable firmness of his 
character; in manners and deportment he was sincere and un- 
affected; in conversation, pleasing and instructive; and in 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 75 

friendship, steadfast and affectionate. As a writer he was in- 
defatigable when he thought his literary efforts could tend to 
promote his liberal and patriotic views ; and although most of 
his productions have suffered that oblivion, to which the best 
efforts of temporary politics are generally destined, tliose which 
remain, or which a knowledge is yet preserved, give abundant 
proof of the strength and fervor of his diction, the soundness 
of his politics, the warmth of his heart, and the piety and sin- 
cerity of his devotion. As an orator he was peculiarly fitted 
for the times and circumstances on which he had fallen. His 
language was pure, concise and impressive ; he was more logical 
than figurative; and his arguments were addressed rather to 
the understanding than the feelings: yet these he could often 
deeply interest when the importance and dignity of his subject 
led him to give free vent to the enthusiasm and patriotic ar- 
dor, with which his heart so often glowed; and if we are to 
judge by the fairest of all tests, the effect upon his hearers, few 
speakers of ancient or modern times could be named as his 
superior. As a statesman the great trait in the character of 
Mr. Adams was the unyielding firmness with which he pursued 
the course which his judgment had determined as the correct 
one. He possessed an energy of will that never faltered in the 
purpose of counteracting the arbitrary plans of the English 
cabinet, and which gradually engaged him to strive for the 
independence of the country. Every part of his character 
conduced to this determination. His private habits, which 
were simple, frugal and unostentatious, led him to despise the 
luxury and parade affected by the crown officers ; his religious 
tenets, which made him loathe the very name of the English 
Church, preserved in his mind the memory of ancient perse- 
cutions as vividly as if they had happened yesterday, and as 
anxiously as if they might be repeated tomorrow ; his detesta- 
tion of royalty, and privileged classes, which no man could 
have felt more deeply — all these circumstances stimulated him 
to persevere in a course which he conscientiously believed it to 
be his duty to pursue for the welfare of his country. The 



76 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

motives by which he was actuated were not a sudden ebullition 
of temper, nor a transient impulse of resentment, but they 
were deliberate, methodical and unyielding. There was no 
pause, no despondency; ev.ery day and every hour were em- 
ployed in some contribution towards the main design. 

''The very faults of his character tended, in some degree, 
to render his services more useful by converging his exertions 
to one point and preventing their being weakened by in- 
dulgence or liberality towards different opinions. There was 
some tinge of bigotry and narrowness both in his religion and 
politics. He was a strict Calvinist ; and probably no individual 
of his day had so much of the feelings of the ancient Puritans 
as he possessed. In politics, he was so jealous of delegated 
power that he would not have given our constitutions inherent 
force enough for their own preservation. He attached an ex- 
clusive value to the habits and principles in which he had been 
educated, and wished to adjust wide concerns too closely after 
a particular model. 

''With this somewhat austere spirit, however, there was 
nothing ferocious, or gloomy, or arrogant in his demeanor. 
His aspect was mild, dignified and gentlemanly. In his own 
state, or in the congress of the Union, he was always the ad- 
vocate of the strongest measures ; and in the darkest hour he 
never wavered or desponded. He engaged in the cause with 
all the zeal of a reformer, the confidence of an enthusiast, and 
the cheerfulness of a voluntary martyr. It was not by bril- 
liancy of talents, or profoundness of learning, that he rendered 
such essential service to the cause of the revolution; but by 
his resolute decision, his unceasing watchfulness, and his heroic 
perseverance. In addition to these qualities his efforts were 
consecrated by his entire superiority to pecuniary considera- 
tions; he, like most of his colleagues, proved the nobleness of 
their cause by the virtue of their conduct ; and Samuel Adams, 
after being so many years in the public service, and having 
filled so many eminent stations, must have been buried at the 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 77 

public expense, if the afflicting death of an only son had not 
remedied this honorable poverty." 

John Ruskin wrote, "Wealth is the possession of the valu- 
able by the valiant. That man is the richest who, having per- 
fected the functions of his own life, has also the widest helpful 
interest." In this sense, America will never have a richer citi- 
zen than was Samuel Adams. To the plain, liberty-loving peo- 
ple of free America, aye, of the world, he will ever 

* ' Be the Herald of Light and the Bearer of Love 
Till the stock of the Puritan dies." 

John Adams. 

The tombstone of Henry Adams in the Quincy graveyard 
reads he "took his flight from the dragon Persecution in 
Devonshire, and alighted with eight sons near Mount WoUas- 
ton." 

From him, and also John Alden, whose winning Priscilla, 
the Puritan maiden Longfellow has given lasting memory, was 
descended John Adams, born at Braintree, Massachusetts, Oc- 
tober 30, 1735. 

After graduating at Harvard in 1751, where he established 
a reputation for "honesty, openness and decision of character," 
as well as diligent application, he taught school while prepar- 
ing for the bar. It is related that Jeremy Gridley, Attorney- 
General of the province, with an air of great secrecy, took him 
to a private room, pointed to a well-filled ease of books and 
said, "There is the secret of my eminence, of which you may 
avail yourself if you please." 

He took the hint, became one of the best read lawyers of 
the day, and achieved distinction as advocate, jurist and author 
before the Revolution. 

The study of government and public affairs was in the 
very air of his times. As early as 1755 he wrote this prophetic 
letter : 

"Soon after the reformation a few people came over into 
this new world for conscience sake. Perhaps this apparently 



78 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire into 
America. It looks likely to me if we can remove the turbulent 
Gallicks; our people, according to the exactest computations 
will in another century become more numerous than England 
herself. Should this be the case, since we have, I may say, all 
the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be easy to 
obtain the mastery of the seas ; and then the united force of 
all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to 
keep us from setting up ourselves is to disunite us." 

Shortly after his admission to the bar he heard James Otis 
make his masterly argument against the justice and legality 
of the "writs of assistance." No event of his life exerted 
more lasting influence upon him. Years after he said, ''Mr. 
Otis' oration against writs of assistance breathed into this 
nation the breath of life. American independence was then 
and there born. Every man of an immense audience appeared 
to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs 
of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first 
act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain." 

The American Revolution was started by the arbitrary acts 
of the Colonial governors, and forced to consummation by the 
arbitrary acts of Parliament in taxing without allowing them 
representation or voice as to that taxation. That, in their 
contention, our fathers stood upon hereditary English ground, 
and were fighting over the very same battles their fathers 
had fought was never more clearly shown than by her own 
peerless statesman, Edmund Burke, when he said, "They are 
not only devoted to liberty but to liberty according to English 
ideas and on English principles. The great contests for free- 
dom in this country were from the earliest times chiefly upon 
the question of taxing. On this point of taxes the ablest pens 
and most eloquent tongues have been exercised; the greatest 
spirits have acted and suffered. Our House of Commons has 
taken infinite pains to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, 
that, in all monarchies, the people must in effect themselves, 
mediately or immediately, possess the power of granting their 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 79 

own money, or no shadow of liberty could subsist. The colo- 
nies draw from you, as with their life-blood, these ideas and 
principles. Their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and at- 
tached on this specific point of taxing. Liberty might be safe 
or might be endangered in twenty other particulars without 
their being much pleased or alarmed. Here they felt its pulse ; 
and, as they found that beat, they thought themselves sick 
or sound," 

The first suggestion of a convention of the colonies for 
concert of action was at a Boston town meeting in 1764. But 
it went no further than suggestion. Each colony was singly 
seeking relief for itself. 

Just after this appeared his famous "Essay on the Canon 
and Feudal Law," that at once lifted him to a level with the 
ablest leaders of the country. 

These extracts show how worthy perpetual memory are its 
forceful truths : 

"We have been told that 'the word rights is an offensive 
expression.' That 'the king, his ministry and parliament will 
not endure to hear Americans talk of their rights.' That 
'Britain is the mother and we the children, that a filial duty 
and submission is due from us to her,' and that 'we ought to 
doubt our own judgment and presume that she is right, even 
when she seems to us to shake the foundations of government. ' 
That 'Britain is immensely rich and great and powerful; has 
fleets and armies at her command, which have been the dread 
and terror of the universe, and that she will force her own 
judgment into execution, right or wrong.' But let me entreat 
you, sir, to pause ; do you consider yourself as a missionary 
of loyalty or of rebellion? Are you not representing your 
king, his ministry and parliament as tyrants — imperious, un- 
relenting tyrants — by such reasoning as this? Is not this rep- 
resenting your most gracious sovereign as endeavoring to de- 
stroy the foundations of his own throne?" 

"Is there not something extremely fallacious in the com- 
monplace images of mother country and children colonies? 



80 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Are we children of Great Britain any more than the cities 
of London, Exeter and Bath 1 Are we not brethren and fellow- 
subjects with those in Britain, only under a somewhat different 
method of taxation? But admitting we are children, have not 
children a right to complain when their parents are attempt- 
ing to break their limbs, to administer poison, or to sell them 
to enemies for slaves'?" 

Perceiving his intellectual power, the English governer of- 
fered him the tempting and profitable position of Advocate 
General in the court of admiralty, which was promptly de- 
clined. 

When the militia of Boston were assembled upon the oc- 
currence of the ' 'Boston Massacre," he served in the ranks 
as a common soldier. Yet he successfully defended Captain 
Preston, of the British army, who commanded the squad of 
soldiers that fired upon the mob and committed what is called 
that Massacre. 

It was at this time, 1770, that he began his official public 
career as a member of the Massachusetts General Court. In 
1773, though not a member, he prepared the reply of that body 
to the address of the Governor, which Benjamin Franklin 
thought so highly of that he had it published and circulated 
in England. 

In 1774 when it was resolved to send delegates to a "meet- 
ing of committees from the several colonies to consult upon the 
present state of the country and the miseries to which we are 
and must be reduced by the operation of certain acts of parlia- 
ment, and to deliberate and determine upon wise and proper 
measures, to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for 
the recovery and establishment of our just rights and liber- 
ties, civil and religious ; and the restoration of union and har- 
mony between Great Britain and America, which is most 
ardently desired by all good men," he was appointed one of the 
delegates. 

He was entreated not to accept this position ; that Great 
Britain was determined to enforce her rule; her power was 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 81 

irresistible ; and destruction was the certain fate of all who 
opposed her. 

"Mr. Adams' reply was that he was well convinced of such 
a aetermination on the part of the British government, and 
that his course was fixed by that very belief, that he had been 
uniform and constant in opposition ; as to his fate the die was 
cast, the Rubicon was passed — and sink or swim, live or die, 
to survive or perish with his country was his unalterable reso- 
lution." 

He became one of the leaders of that congress, of which 
Lord Chatham said : 

"That he had studied and admired the free states of an- 
tiquity, the master spirits of the world; but that for solidity 
of reasoning, force of sagacity and wisdom of conclusion no 
body of men could stand in preference to this congress." 

It is an historic fact that when that congress adjourned a 
large majority of its members believed Great Britain would 
hear their complaints, right their wrongs, and harmony be- 
tween crown and colonies be restored. 

As was the custom then, he entered the list of writers to 
the public under the nom de plume of "Novanglus," and gave 
to the press not only among the most forceful but learned of 
all this class of appeals to the people. 

In answering Attorney General Sewall as to the right and 
value of resistance to tyranny he wrote ; 

''The resistance to Charles the First and the case of Crom- 
well, no doubt, he means. But the people of England, and the 
cause of liberty, truth, virtue and humanity gained infinite 
advantages by that resistance. In all human probability lib- 
erty, civil and religious — not only in England but in all Europe 
— would have been lost. Did not the people gain by the re- 
sistance to James the Second? Did not the Romans gain by 
the resistance to Tarquin ? Throughout that resistance and the 
liberty that was restored by it would the great Roman orators, 
poets and historians, the great teachers of humanity and po- 
liteness, the pride of human nature, and the delight and glory 



82 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

of mankind for seventeen hundred years ever have existed? 
Did not the Eomans gain by the resistance to the Decemvirs ? 
Did not the English gain by resistance to John, when Magna 
Charta was obtained? Did not the seven United Provinces 
gain by resistance to Philip, Alva, and Granvell? Did not the 
Swiss Cantons, the Genevans and Grissons gain by resistance 
to Albert and Gessler?" 

That this should reach the point of independence he did not 
contend, but says : 

"What does he mean by independence? Does he mean 
independent of the croWh of Great Britain, and an independent 
republic in America, or a confederation of independent repub- 
lics ? No doubt he intended the undistinguishing should under- 
stand him so. If he did, nothing can be more wicked or a 
greater slander on the whigs, because he knows there is not a 
man in the province, among the whigs, nor ever was, who har- 
bors a wish of that sort." 

In this day it is hard to believe that John Adams so wrote, 
and that such were the sentiments of the American people 
in 1775. 

It was upon his motion, supported by a speech of remark- 
able eloquence, and seconded by Samuel Adams, that Wash- 
ington was chosen by congress as commander-in-chief of the 
American armies. 

The first actual step toward independence was the resolu- 
tion offered by him in May, 1776, that the colonies should form 
governments independent of the crown. 

Of his efforts favoring independence Thomas Jefferson said, 
''John Adams was our Colossus on the floor; not graceful, not 
elegant, not always fluent in his public addresses, he yet came 
out with a power both of thought and of expression that moved 
us from our seats." At another time, speaking of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, "John Adams was the great pillar of 
its support on the floor of congress; its ablest advocate and 
defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered." 

Of the adoption of the Declaration he wrote his wife : 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 83 

''Yesterday the greatest question was decided that was 
ever debated in America, and greater, perhaps, never was or 
will be decided among men. A resolution was passed, without 
one dissenting colony, 'that these United States are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent states.' The day is 
passed. The Fourth of July, 1776, will be a memorable epoch 
in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be cele- 
brated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary 
festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliver- 
ance by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to 
be solemnized with pomps, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, 
bonfires and illuminations from one end of the continent to the 
other from this time forward forever. You will think me 
transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware 
of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost to maintain 
this declaration and support and defend these states; yet, 
through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory. I 
can see that the end is worth more than all the means, and that 
posterity will triumph, although you and I may rue, which 
I hope we shall not." 

He was not only kept in Congress, but in 1776 elected to the 
Council of Massachusetts and Chief Justice. The latter office 
he declined in order to give his time to legislative duties. 

Just after the defeat of the Americans at the battle of 
Flatbush, Lord Howe proposed negotiations with Congress for 
a settlement of all controversies. Adams, in the debate, op- 
posed it as certain to be fruitless, but congress thought other- 
wise, and sent him, Benjamin Franklin and Edward Rutledge 
to confer with Lord Howe. They were escorted to the British 
General between lines of twenty thousand soldiers, so drawn 
up as to awe them with the power of Great Britain. Lord 
Howe frankly told them he could not recognize them as com- 
missioners from congress, but as private citizens of the colo- 
nies, meaning, of course, British subjects. They boldly de- 
clined to be considered in any other light than as commis- 



84 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

sioners from congress, Adams saying, ''You may view me in 
any light you please except in that of a British subject." 

The conference proved fruitless, as Adams had predicted. 

During 1776 and 1777 he- vs^as a member of ninety different 
committees and chairman of twenty-five. Says a learned 
writer, "His duties must have been more multifarious and 
severe than those of any officer under any government in the 
world." 

In December, 1777, he was sent as one of our commission- 
ers to France. English ships patrolled the Atlantic; the risk 
of his capture on the voyage was imminent, and, if that oc- 
curred, imprisonment certain. 

En route the captain of the vessel sighted an English ship 
and asked his consent to attack it, but conditioned that he 
sliould stay in a place of safety below decks. In the fight the 
captain found him, musket in hand, with the marines, and say- 
ing that he was ordered to take him in safety to Europe, 
picked Adams up in his arms and carried him below. 

In 1779 he returned and served in the convention to frame 
a constitution for Massachusetts. 

In the latter part of this year he was appointed Minister 
Plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great 
Britain. 

"He subsequently received letters of credence from con- 
gress as their minister plenipotentiary to their 'high mighti- 
ness,' and another to his serene highness the Prince of Orange, 
as stadtholder of the United Provinces. By this accumulation 
of trusts he was minister plenipotentiary for making peace; 
minister plenipotentiary for making a treaty of commerce with 
Great Britain; minister plenipotentiary to their high mighti- 
nesses the States General; minister plenipotentiary to his se- 
rene highness the Prince of Orange and stadtholder; minister 
plenipotentiary for pledging the faith of the United States to 
the armed neutrality; and, what perhaps at that critical mo- 
ment was of as much importance to the United States as any 
of those powers, he was commissioner for negotiating a loan 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLAEATION 85 

of money to the amount of ten millions of dollars, upon which 
depended the support of our army at home and our ambassa- 
dors abroad." 

His chief mission was, of course, to secure peace and a 
more delicate and trying mission no man ever had. France, 
the ally to whom we owed so much, had to be consulted. Other 
nations from which loans had been secured were concerned, 
and they must be advised with. The proposal for peace must 
be induced from, not made to the British authorities. These 
complications demanded diplomacy and statesmanship of the 
first rank, and these he exhibited. His greatest difficulty was 
with France. Vergennes, her Prime Minister, desired to dic- 
tate in every movement. Adams, learning he could do better 
for his country if he acted alone, was endeavoring to act inde- 
pendently, yet at the same time not to offend France. 

The French Minister at Philadelphia remonstrated with 
congress as to Adams' conduct without previous consent of 
France, and that body almost completely tied his hands by 
instructing him to "undertake nothing in the negotiation for 
peace or truce without the knowledge and concurrence" of 
the French Ministers. 

At last congress gave him the aid of Benjamin Franklin, 
John Jay, Henry Laurens and Thomas Jefferson. 

Better than the congress that did not give him adequate 
support, he saw the selfish motives that prompted France 
and writhed under the instructions to the combined commis- 
sioners to "govern themselves by the advice and opinion' of 
the ministers and King of France." 

There was not only this burdfen, but money to continue the 
war was in more and more urgent demand, and that he must 
raise in France and Holland. 

At last the surrender of Cornwallis prompted the British 
Ministers to make definite proposals ; his associates joined with 
him in the policy of acting independently of France, and the 
provisional treaty was signed November 30, 1782; the final 
treaty nearly a year later, September 3, 1783. 



86 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

He remained in France during the year 1784 negotiating 
treaties with other nations, and in 1785 was appointed our 
first Minister to England. 

On his presentation as Minister to the King the latter 
shrewdly said, "There is an opinion among some people that 
you are not the most attached of all your countrymen to the 
manners of France," for France was dissatisfied with the 
treaty, its manner of negotiation, and especially with Adams. 
- He answered, ''I must avow to your majesty I have no 
attachment but to my own country. ' ' 

Quickly the King replied, "An honest man will never have 
any other." 

Many eminent Europeans had written severe criticisms of 
the Articles of Confederation and the State Constitutions of 
America. 

He answered these in a masterly treatise of three volumes, 
entitled, "The Defence of the American Constitutions." This 
able and exhaustive work had large circulation in the old as 
well as the new world. 

In addition to his onerous diplomatic duties he gave ex- 
haustive study to the literary, scientific and educational insti- 
tutions and systems of Europe, and one of our great biog- 
raphers says : 

"There is scarcely an institution in his native state for the 
encouragement of arts, sciences and letters to which he did 
not, after his return from Europe, largely contribute." 

After an absence of over eight years he returned to America 
in 1788, and was elected first Vice-President of the United 
States, was reelected in 1792, serving eight years, and in 1796 
our second President by three votes over Thomas Jefferson. 

He was bitterly attacked in his candidacy as having a pref- 
erence for Monarchicah institutions. 

On taking his seat as Vice-President, Jefferson condemned 
this charge against his successful rival, saying : 

"The chief magistracy had been justly confided to the 
eminent character who preceded me, whose talents and integ- 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLAEATION 87 

rity have been known and revered by me through a long course 
of years ; have been the foundation of a cordial and uninter- 
rupted friendship between us; and I devoutly pray that he 
may be long preserved for the government, the happiness and 
prosperity of our country." 

During the campaign Jefferson said to some of his own sup- 
porters, who thus declaimed against Adams : 

''Gentlemen, you do not know that man; there is not upon 
this earth a more perfectly honest man that John Adams. Con- 
cealment is no part of his character; of that he is utterly in- 
capable. It is not in his nature to meditate anything that he 
would not publish to the world. The measures of the general 
government are a fair subject for difference of opinion, but 
do not found your opinions on the notion that there is the 
smallest spice of dishonesty, moral or political, in the charac- 
ter of John Adams, for I know him well, and I repeat that a 
man more perfectly honest never issued from the hands of his 
Creator." 

His administration was patriotic to the utmost, but not 
popular. He favored the building of a navy, which was not 
favored. His treaty made with France saved us from war with 
that nation, but cost him his reelection. He fully realized this 
and said he would ask no other inscription on his tomb than, 
"Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsi- 
bility of peace with France." 

After his retirement in 1801 he was offered, but declined, 
the nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. The remainder 
of his life he passed at Quincy, Massachusetts, where he died. 

Though opposed to the war of 1812, he wrote to a friend: 

' ' I think, with you, that it is the duty of every considerate 
man to support the national authorities, in whose hands soever 
they may be; though I will not say whatever their measures 
may be." 

"When a loan was sought to raise money for that war and 
efforts were made to prevent capital being invested in it, he 



88 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

promptly came to the front and the first certificate for that 
loan was issued on his investment. 

In 1815 he saw his son, who was afterwards President, at 
the head of the commission that negotiated the second treaty 
of peace with Great Britain. 

In 1820 the convention called to frame the new constitution 
for Massachusetts paid him this deserved tribute : 

"Whereas the honorable John Adams, a member of this 
convention, and elected the president thereof, has, for more 
than half a century, devoted the great powers of his mind and 
his profound wisdom and learning, to the service of his country 
and mankind: 

''In fearlessly vindicating the rights of the North American 
provinces against the usurpations and encroachments of the 
superintendent government : 

"In diffusing a knowledge of the principles of civil liberty 
among his fellow subjects, and exciting them to a firm and 
resolute defense of the privileges of freemen : 

"In early conceiving, asserting and maintaining the justice 
and practicability of establishing the independence of the 
United States of America: 

"In giving the powerful aid of his political knowledge in 
the formation of the constitution of this his native state, which 
constitution became in a great measure the model of those 
which were subsequently formed: 

"In conciliating the favor of foreign powers, and obtain- 
ing their countenance and support in the arduous struggle for 
independence : 

"In negotiating the treaty of peace, which secured forever 
the sovereignty of the United States, and in defeating all at- 
tempts to prevent it, and especially in preserving in that treaty 
the vital interest of the New England states : 

"In demonstrating to the world in his defense of the con- 
stitutions of the several United States, the contested principle, 
since admitted as an axiom, that checks and balances, in legis- 
lative power, are essential to true liberty : 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 89 

"In devoting his time and talents to the service of the 
nation, in the high and important trusts of Vice-President and 
President of the United States: 

"And lastly, in passing an honorable old age in dignified 
retirement, in the practice of all the domestic virtues, thus 
exhibiting to his countrymen and to posterity an example of 
true greatness of mind and of genuine patriotism; therefore, 

"Resolved, That the members of this convention, represent- 
ing the people of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, do joy- 
fully avail themselves of this opportunity to testify their re- 
spect and gratitude to this eminent patriot and statesman, for 
the great services rendered by him to his country, and their 
high gratification that at this late period of life he is per- 
mitted, by Divine Providence, to assist them with his counsel 
in revising the constitution which, forty years ago, his wisdom 
and prudence assisted to form." 

He declined to preside over the convention on account of 
his age, but gave his aid in framing that constitution. 

In 1764 he was married to Abigail, daughter of Rev. 
William Smith, a woman of unusual excellence of head and 
heart. Says Sanderson: 

"With true sympathy in his feelings she unrepiningly sub- 
mitted to the frequent separations which his devotion to the 
general cause occasioned ; and he fully appreciated her worth ; 
and could never, in the heaviest trials of his life, speak of her 
without emotions of tenderness and gratitude, that would suf- 
fuse his eyes and impede his utterance. There has been pre- 
served a letter written by her to a friend, at one of the most 
gloomy periods of war, in which she thus expressed the noble 
patriotism which she cherished in common with her husband, 
'Heaven is our witness, that we do not rejoice in the effusion 
of blood or the carnage of the human species ; but having been 
forced to draw the sword, we are determined never to sheathe 
it slaves of Britain. Our cause, sir, is, I trust, the cause of 
truth and justice, and will finally prevail, though the combined 
force of earth and hell shall rise against it. To this cause I 



90 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

have sacrificed much of my own personal happiness, by giving 
up to the councils of America one of my nearest connections, 
and living for more than three years in a state of widow- 
hood.' " 

Their happy, mutually helpful married life lasted for fifty- 
four years. 

He lived to see his oldest son, John Quincy Adams, take the 
upward career of honor in the service of the country they both 
gave their lives' full measure of devotion until he became its 
President in 1824. 

On July 4, 1826, on his death-bed, he was asked to suggest 
a toast for the day's celebration, and gave ''Independence for- 
ever ! ' ' 

They were the last intelligible words he ever uttered. That 
day he died. 

His political foe, his personal friend of a life time ; his rival 
whom he defeated and who defeated him for the Presidency; 
his associate with whom he acted more intimately than any 
other member of the committee in drafting the Declaration of 
Independence fifty years before, Thomas Jefferson, had but a 
few hours before on the same day gone where rivalries end and 
friendships are eternal. Twin stars in the firmament of Ameri- 
can glory, in life and death, they forever light the pathway of 
American patriotism, and teach our youth the grandeur of lives 
of industry, of purity, of unselfish and heroic service to the 
great cause of humanity and liberty. 

Robert Treat Paine 

Robert Treat Paine was born in Boston, March 11, ITSl^ 
and died May 11, 1814. 

His father was a minister, but failing health forced him to 
abandon the pulpit, and he became a merchant. His mother, 
a Miss Treat, was the daughter of an eminent minister and a 
grand-daughter of Governor Treat of Connecticut. He was, 
by heredity, intellectual and moral. He entered Harvard at 
the age of fourteen and graduated therefrom at an early age. 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 91 

He taught school to help support his parents, and made a tour 
and study of European countries ; studied theology and became 
a chaplain with the provincial troops. He was induced to 
study law by Benjamin Pratt, a celebrated lawyer of Suffolk 
county, Massachusetts, afterwards Chief Justice of the colony 
of New York. 

He first located at Boston, but removed to Taunton. 

He was employed by the citizens of Boston to conduct the 
prosecution against Captain Preston and his men for the "Bos- 
ton Massacre." 

He was chosen a member of the General Assembly from 
Taunton, was speaker, helped draft the Constitution of Massa- 
chusetts, became Attorney General by the unanimous vote of 
the Assembly, and from 1790 to 1804 was a judge of the Massa- 
chusetts Supreme Court. 

He was a member of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 
1778, and also in 1774 and 1775 a member of the Provincial 
Congress which sat at Concord. He was the principal author 
of the address by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts to 
the people of England, which the Continental Congress so ap- 
proved that they ordered it to be published. 

In the Continental Congress he was chairman of the com- 
mittee to promote the manufacture of gunpowder and a lead- 
ing member of the committee for providing the munitions of 
war. 

He was an ardent supporter of the ratification by his State 
of the Constitution of the United States, and of the first two 
administrations under it. 

On resigning the office of Judge in 1804, he was elected a 
Counsellor of the commonwealth. He was one of the founders 
of the American Academy, established in Massachusetts in 
1780, and was a Counsellor of that society until his death. He 
was honored with the degree of LL.D. by Harvard. 

He was a man of unostentatious but sincere piety; of the 
plain and simple, but laboriously useful life that marked so 
many of the leaders of his day. His eloquence, sound judg- 



92 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

ment, pious and irreproachable character made him one of 
the most influential orators and writers of the period. 

Said Dr. M'Kean, in pronouncing his funeral oration, ''His 
intellectual, moral and religious character were strongly 
marked with sterling integrity, and uprightness eminently 
directed his usual course of domestic and social duty. Justice 
was the constant aim of his official services. He enjoyed his 
faculties unimpaired to the last; retained his interest in his 
friends and country; its religious, civil and literary institu- 
tions ; rejoiced in its good ; was impressed with its dangers and 
prayed for its peace." 

Elbridge Gerry 

(See Framers of the Constitution, page 254.) 
For Bliode Island 
Stephen Hopkins 

Stephen Hopkins was born in Scituate, Rhode Island, March 
7, 1707. His great grandfather was one of the first settlers of 
Providence. 

His education was in the primitive country school, but by 
self-education he became the most famous mathematician of his 
day. 

He entered the public service as town clerk of Scituate in 
1731 ; in 1735 was chosen president of the town council, to 
which position he was reelected until he left his farm, re- 
moved to Providence and entered upon a commercial career 
in 1742. 

From 1732 to 1738 he was a member of the general assembly 
of his state ; in 1736 appointed one of the judges, and in 1739 
chief justice of the court of common pleas. 

In 1744 he was again elected to the assembly and chosen 
speaker, and again in 1754 for the fourteenth time elected a 
member of the assembly. 

From 1751 to 1754 he was chief justice of the superior 
court and in the latter year was a member of the celebrated 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 93 

Albany convention and one of the committee who drew up the 
plan for the union of the colonies at that convention. 

In 1756 he was elected governor of Rhode Island, and 
reelected at intervals, holding that office in all for seven years 
until 1767, when he resigned. 

His address to the people of his state on resigning, partly 
as follows, may well be cherished by every community in our 
country : 

''Permit me, therefore, to remind my countrymen, of the 
blood, the sufferings, the hardships, and labour, of their 
ancestors, in purchasing the liberty and privileges they might 
peacefully enjoy. How can they answer it to their posterity, 
to fame, to honour, to honesty, if they do not possess those in- 
estimable blessings with grateful hearts, with purity of morals, 
and transmit them with safety to the next generation? Noth- 
ing is desired but that every man in the community may act 
up to the dignity of his own proper character. Let every free- 
man carefully consider the particular duty allotted to him as 
such, by the constitution; let him give his suffrage agreeable 
to his oath, with candour, for the person he sincerely thinks 
best qualified; let him shun the man who speaks to him to 
persuade him how to vote ; let him despise the man who offers 
him an office, and spurn the sordid wretch that would give him 
a bribe ; let him think it his duty to give his vote according to 
his conscience, and not depend on others to do his duty for 
him; let him know that, as duty is not local, so neither is 
capacity or fitness for office confined to this or that town or 
place. Those, by such means made officers, and magistrates, 
I would humbly entreat to consider, that a burden, not a bene- 
fit, is given to them; that their turn has arrived to serve the 
commonwealth, not themselves ; that it is a great honour to be 
esteemed capable, and to be really worthy, of serving their 
country, that their own discreet and exemplary behaviour is 
their chiefest and best authority to do good in their offices ; 
that, it is vain to command others to practise what we our- 
selves omit, or to abstain from what they see us do ; that, where 



94 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

moderation and example are insufficient to suppress .vice, 
power ought to be used even to its utmost severity, if neces- 
sary; and, above all, that justice should be, in all cases and 
under all circumstances, equally impartially, and expeditiously 
administered." 

From 1765 on, his contributions to the press on American 
rights were among the most influential in rousing patriotic 
sentiment. 

From 1772 to 1775 he was again a member of the general 
assembly, in the latter year holding at the same time the high 
offices of member of the assembly, Chief Justice of the Superior 
Court, and delegate to the Continental Congress. He was sent 
to the latter in 1774, took his seat on the first day, and was a 
member of the first two committees appointed to state the 
rights of the colonies, and to report the statutes affecting the 
trade and manufacture of the colonies. 

In the Rhode Island assembly in 1774 he procured the 
passage of the law prohibiting the further importation of 
slaves into the colony, and set an example by emancipating his 
own slaves. 

For many years he suffered from a nervous affection, and 
his tremulous signature to the Declaration is due to that fact — 
he was compelled to guide his right hand with the left in 
writing. 

In 1776 he was chosen president of the commissioners of the 
New England states who met for the purpose of preparing for 
their defense. 

His last service in the Continental Congress was in 1778. 

He was on the committee to prepare the Articles of Con- 
federation, and, from his commercial and business experience, 
of great service on the naval committee. 

He became one of the best read men of his day. His ob- 
servations on the transit of Venus in 1769, that enlisted the in- 
terest of astronomers and scientists throughout the world, 
evoked the following compliment by the American Philosoph- 
ical Society : 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 95 

""Much might be said, with respect to your honour's su- 
perior abilities in mathematics and natural philosophy; but, 
without flattery, these are the least of your acquirements, when 
compared with your profound skill in civil police, and the wise 
government of a people." 

He was a chief promoter of the public library in Provi- 
dence; of the American Philosophical Society; and for many 
years chancellor of the college of Rhode Island. 

The free school system found in him an earnest advocate. 
He said : 

*'As it is confessed by all who have considered the subject, 
that nothing tends so much to the good of the commonwealth, 
as a proper culture of the minds of the rising generations ; and 
as genius is often found in indigent, as well as affluent circum- 
stances, all institutions of learning become so much the more 
useful, as they are the more free, and within the reach of the 
poor as well as the rich, in partaking of a virtuous and liberal 
education." 

He was a practical farmer ; a ship builder and owner ; and 
interested in the manufactures that made pig iron and hollow 
ware, as w^ell as cannon for our army. 

"While Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island 
under British rule, the King's revenue schooner, Gaspee, was 
seized and burned. An order came from the British ministry 
to send the offenders to England for trial. 

The matter came before Judge Hopkins, who refused to 
obey the order, holding that it was contrary to justice to 
transport offenders for trial. 

He was twice married, both wives belonging to the Quakers, 
whose principles he professed, at whose place of worship he 
was a regular attendant, and whose meetings were often held 
at his house. 

His domestic bereavements were great. Of his five sons, 
one died in childhood ; another of smallpox in Spain while com- 
manding one of his ships ; another was lost with his ship and 



96 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

all on board; the fourth was murdered by Indians; but one 
of his two daughters lived to maturity. 

He died in his seventy-ninth year, July 13, 1785, at New- 
port, Rhode Island. Says Sanderson: 

"In an age fruitful in the production of eminent men, he 
was one among the most eminent. Warmed by an inextinguish- 
able love of liberty and considering the happiness of his coun- 
try as the first object of pursuit, he obtained a perfect ac- 
quaintance with the history of mankind, the policies of the 
civilized world, the principles and systems of law, and the 
profound art of governing the hearts, as well as the persons, 
of men. Under the British administration, as a father to the 
people, and the guardian of their rights, liberties, and priv- 
ileges, he invariably and with unshaken resolution, opposed the 
strides of lawless power ; and, with equal wisdom and firmness, 
entered the list of fame, and was one of those unparalleled leg- 
islators, who framed for the United States, the glorious prin- 
ciples of their revolution. He had scarcely attained the age of 
manhood, when he was called into the service of his country; 
and from that period his whole life was devoted to the pros- 
perity and welfare of the public. A skilful legislator, an im- 
partial judge, a learned chancellor, an able representative, 
and an upright governor — he alternately sustained those im- 
portant offices, with dignity and moderation. A decided ad- 
vocate, and zealous supporter, both of civil and religious lib- 
erty, he was the friend of his country, and the patron of all 
good works. 

"Possessed of a sound, discriminating mind, and a clear 
and comprehensive understanding, he was alike distinguished 
for his public and private virtues, being as useful a private 
citizen, as he was an able and faithful public officer. An uni- 
versal benevolence adorned his virtues, and his great study and 
delight was in doing good. Candid and upright in all his 
dealings with the world, he was more attentive to the concerns 
of his public stations, than to his pecuniary and private affairs. 
It is the testimony of a survivor, who was intimately ac- 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLAEATION 97 

quainted with him during the last forty-five years of his life, 
that they were passed in a 'useful and honourable manner.' A 
friend to the poor, the fatherless, and the widow, he often 
tenderly advised and counselled them ; maintaining their 
rights, and ministering to their comforts. Free of access, open 
and candid in his manners, his doors were as open as his heart 
to the voice and relief of affliction; and so genuine was his 
charity, that it was remarked by his friends, that he conferred 
more benefits on his political enemies, than on them. An affec- 
tionate husband, and a tender parent, he was greatly attached 
to the regular habits of domestic life. Exemplary, quiet, and 
serene, in his family, he governed his children and domestics 
in an easy and affectionate manner. 

"As in life he had despised the follies, so in death he rose 
superior to the fears, of an ignorant and licentious world ; and 
he expected with patience, and met with pious and philosophic 
intrepidity, the stroke of death. The judges of the courts ; the 
president, corporation, and students of the college; a great 
number of distinguished characters from different parts of the 
state; a prodigious concourse of respectable citizens; and a 
numerous train of mourning relatives, composed the funeral 
procession, which, on the fifteenth of July, 1785, followed the 
remains of Stephen Hopkins to his tomb. 'Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord ; they rest from their labours, and 
their works do follow them.' " 

William EUery 

William Ellery was born in Newport, Rhode Island, Decem- 
ber 22, 1727, and there died February 15, 1820. 

After graduating at Harvard College, and a successful 
career as a merchant, in which he amassed a considerable for- 
tune, he became a lawyer, achieved a distinguished reputation 
as such, and became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
Rhode Island. 

From 1776 to 1785, except two years, he was a member of 
the Continental Congress, and was especially serviceable as a 



98 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

member of the Marine Committee, the Postal Committee and 
the Treasury Board. 

He was always one of the most strenuous advocates for the 
abolition of slavery. It will be remembered that in 1784 a 
committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, reported 
an ordinance for the government of the "Northwest territory," 
and the states to be formed therefrom, in which was this clause 
that became part of the famous ordinance of 1787, and almost 
the exact language of the thirteenth amendment to the Con- 
stitution : 

''That after the year 1800 there shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude in any of the said states, otherwise than 
in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been 
convicted." 

He is the same Mr. Ellery to whom Daniel Webster re- 
ferred in his celebrated reply to Eobert Y. Hayne, as second- 
ing the motion of Rufus King the next year, 1785, to restore 
this clause to the ordinance, and add thereto : 

"And that this regulation shall be an article of compact, 
and remain a fundamental principle of the Constitution be- 
tween the thirteen original States, and each of these States 
described in the resolve." 

In the invasion of Rhode Island by the British, his signing 
the Declaration of Independence made him the especial object 
of vindictive vengeance, and he was despoiled by them of prop- 
erty of great value. 

His attainments as a scholar and a lawyer were of the 
highest order. He died holding a copy of Cicero's works in 
his hand. 

He said that he was determined to see how all looked as 
they signed the Declaration that might be their death warrant, 
and eyed each closely as he affixed his signature thereto, and 
declared that unalterable resolution was^ displayed in every 
countenance. 

He closed his public career with his services in the Con- 
tinental Congress, and for the remaining thirty-five years of 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 



99 



his life devoted himself to private business in the midst of a 
community that gave him universal honor. 

For Connecticut. 

Roger Sherman 

(See Framers of the Constitution, page 271.) 

Samuel Huntington 

The family of Samuel Huntington was among the early set- 
tlers of Connecticut. His father vv^as a farmer ; his mother a 
vroman noted for her piety and native talent. 

He was born at Windham, Connecticut, July 3, 1731, the 
eldest of a large family. His brothers were liberally educated, 
one at Yale, and several became ministers of the Gospel, but 
he stayed at home to help his father in their education, and 
himself never went beyond the common schools. Yet he kept 
the poor boy 's nightly vigils with his books, and at twenty-two 
entered upon the practice of the law. By 1760 he had acquired 
an excellent practice, and provincial fame, and located at Nor- 
wich. 

In 1764 he was elected to the provincial assembly; in 1765 
was appointed King's attorney; in 1774 associate judge of the 
Superior Court ; in 1775 member of the Council of Connecticut ; 
and in the same year elected to the Continental Congress, of 
which he continued a member until 1780, when he returned 
to resume the positions of judge and in the council, during all 
these busy years held for him. 

In 1779 he was elected to the highest office in the country — 
president of the Continental Congress, and in 1780 reelected. 
To that high office his associate statesmen were reluctant to 
nominate a successor while hoping for his return, and upon 
his retirement presented him their unanimous vote of thanks 
"in testimony of their approbation of his conduct in the chair, 
and in the execution of public business." 

He was our first Cincinnatus, veritably rising from plow- 
boy to president. 



100 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

Again in 1782 he was elected to the Congress, but could not 
attend; was reelected in 1783, and did attend, with that year 
closing his national career. 

In 1784 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Superior 
Court ; the next year elected lieutenant-governor ; in 1786 gov- 
ernor, and annually reelected until his death at Norwich, Con- 
necticut, January 5, 1796. 

He was of medium size and dark complexion; his manners 
formal and reserved; his bearing dignified. 

He was not an orator, but of judicial cast of mind, a man 
whose extraordinary good sense, sound judgment and tireless 
industry commended him to and won for him the exalted sta- 
tions he filled. 

He was much averse to pageantry and display, and believed 
it the duty of those called to conspicious place in a Republic to 
set the example of plain living, and by force thereof suppress 
extravagance in public and private life. 

He was devoted to his church; occasionally filled the pul- 
pit; and made his daily and domestic life that of a sincere, 
unostentatious Christian. 

He married Martha, daughter of Rev. Ebenzer Devotion, a 
woman whose pious, cultured rearing made her a fit companion. 

They were childless and adopted the son and daughter of 
his brother, the Rev. Joseph Huntington. That adopted son, 
Samuel Huntington, became the governor of Ohio. 

So lived Samuel Huntington the quiet, busy, blameless life 
of laborious honor, and left a blessed memory to light the foot- 
steps of American boys, however humble, who by patient in- 
dustry, preservation of character and cultivation of mind, may 
highly serve their families, their fellows and their country. 

William Williams 

The "Williams family were "Welsh, one of whose members 
located at Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1630. 

"William Williams was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, April 
8, 1731, where his father, following in the steps of his grand- 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION 101 

father as a minister, had been pastor of the Congregational 
church for fifty-four years, had reared a family of five sons, 
four of whom graduated at Yale, and this one at Harvard, and 
all of whom became worthy and successful citizens, and three 
daughters. 

He began the study of theology under his father, but his 
country called him to a less peaceful sphere of activity. In 1755 
he marched with the troop under the command of his relative. 
Col. Ephraim Williams, against the French and Indians at 
Lake George. In the engagement there Colonel Williams, who 
was the founder of Williams College, at Williamsport, Massa- 
chusetts, and for whom the college and town were named, was 
killed, and young Williams returned to his home. 

The supercilious air of the British officers, and their ignor- 
ance of, or inattention to American interests in this campaign, 
disgusted him, as like conduct did many others, and convinced 
him that aliens, having nothing in common with the natives of 
a country, could not properly care for, protect, or develop it; 
that for successful government a people must, of themselves, 
and for themselves, govern themselves. 

In 1776 he was elected town clerk, and annually reelected 
for forty-five years. About the same time he was elected to the 
Connecticut assembly, of which he was a member for many 
years, and at one time speaker. 

In 1780 he was elected councillor, and annually reelected 
for twenty-four years, resigning in 1804, and retaining the 
office of probate judge, which he held for forty years. As 
was the custom of the day, many of these different offices he 
held at the same time. 

It is said that for ninety sessions of the legislature he was 
never absent from his seat, except in 1776 and 1777, when he 
was in the Continental Congress — in fact, his whole mature 
life was devoted to the civil and military service of his country. 

He was a speaker of some note, a writer of greater ability, 
and did much to arouse his countrymen to resist British op- 
pression. For that country he gave up what he had acquired 



102 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMBES 

by judicious mercantile investment. The debts of those owing 
him and who fell in battle, were cancelled by him, and he 
always refused the fees due his office from the widow. 

It is said that no decision of his in the forty years of his 
judicial service of probate judge was ever reversed. 

During the war he was constant in gathering food, clothing 
and supplies for the army, and in 1781 gave his house entirely 
to the officers of Lauren's command who were stationed at 
Lebanon. 

Once at a meeting of the Council of Safety, his associates 
were discussing their probable fate in event the colonies should 
lose in the war for independence. Mr. Williams was sure his 
hostile efforts, his writings, and his signing the Declaration, 
would give him the gallows. Mr. Hillhouse said he had not 
been so prominent, and would try to act for the best advantage. 
Mr. Huntington, an able lawyer, and one of the judges of the 
Superior Court, said he had neither signed the Declaration, nor 
written anything hostile to the British government, and would 
escape the gallows. Whereupon, Mr. Williams hotly replied, 
''Then, sir, you ought to be hanged for not doing your duty." 

Connecticut has always been the land of the common school. 
"They raise men and women there." From the sale of public 
lands a fund was raised, that was distributed among the towns 
to be used as a school fund. Many towns during the revolu- 
tion lost their fund. The authorities of Lebanon, with utmost 
confidence in Mr. Williams^ placed their fund with him. With 
all his public burdens, he so cared for it, that after the war he 
turned over both principal and interest, which became a pro- 
ductive fund for the schools of Lebanon. "Well done, good 
and faithful servant, ' ' never was more fitly said to mortal than 
to him. 

He was elected to the convention to pass upon ratifying 
the , Constitution of the United States, and, though his con- 
stituents opposed it, he zealously labored for it, and was after- 
wards thanked by them for so doing. 

In 1772 he married Mary, daughter of Governor Jonathan 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 103 

Trumbull, by whom he had three children, two sons and a 
daughter. 

A devoted father, the death of his oldest son was a fatal 
blow, and at the place of his birth he passed away August 11, 
1811. 

He was of medium size ; erect as an Indian ; hair and eyes 
black; Eoman nose; complexion fair. 

He was a man of sincere piety, of inflexible honesty, of 
genial good humor. 

In the semi-annual elections of his more than fifty years of 
office holding, he is said to have never solicited a vote — a 
worthy example to the politicians of the nation of which he 
may be called one of the fathers and founders. 

Oliver Wolcott 

Henry Wolcott, ancestor of Oliver, being an Independent in 
religion, and under government displeasure in consequence, 
emigrated to Massachusetts in 1630, settling at Dorchester, 
afterwards at Windsor, Connecticut, and was for many years 
a member of the Connecticut assembly. His son was one of 
the patentees in the charter granted to Connecticut by Charles 
II. His grandson, Roger, one of the most distinguished men 
in the state's history, was at one time governor. 

For two hundred years some of the family were constantly 
in the public service as members of the assembly, judges or 
otherwise. 

Oliver, the youngest son of Roger, was born at Windsor, 
November 26, 1726, and graduated at Yale in 1747. The same 
year he served as captain of a company in the frontier war. 

He began the study of medicine, but was appointed the 
first sheriff of Litchfield county on its organization in 1751; 
promoted to counsellor in 1774, and annually reelected until 
1786. He was at the same time chief judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas, and for many years judge of the Probate Court. 

In the militia he filled every office from captain to major 
general. In 1775 the Continental Congress appointed him one 



104 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

of the commissioners for Indian affairs for the northern depart- 
ment, a position of great importance, as upon their success 
depended the neutrality of the Indians during the approach- 
ing war. "While so engaged he was influential in settling the 
dispute as to boundaries between Connecticut and Pennsyl- 
vania, Vermont and New York, and uniting the New England 
people in support of independence. 

He was sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 
January, 1776 ; returned in August to command fourteen regi- 
ments of Connecticut militia sent to aid in the defense of New 
York; resumed his seat in Congress in November; in 1777 
raised several thousand men to aid General Putnam, and com- 
manded a troop of some 2,000 militia in the army sent against 
General Burgoyne; returned to Congress in February, 1778; 
was in the field commanding a division of militia resisting the 
British invasion of Connecticut in 1779 ; in congress from 1781 
to 1783 ; in 1784 and 1785 arranged a treaty of peace with the 
Six Nations of Indians; from 1786 to 1796 annually elected 
lieutenant-governor, when he was elected governor, which 
office he held at the time of his death at Litchfield, Connecticut, 
December 1, 1797. 

This brief record shows a busy and serviceable life of 
blameless honor. 

In 1755 he married Miss Laura Collins, of Guilford, who 
died in 1795. 

It was due to her frugality and management that his 
patrimonial estate was preserved, their children educated, and 
he enabled to be so constantly in the country's service. To 
the mothers no less than to the fathers is due the successful 
struggle for independence. 

He was tall, erect, and of great physical as well as mental 
strength. 

He was neither an orator, nor profoundly learned. His busy 
life was crowded with deeds. 

For his gallantry he was made a brigadier general on the 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 105 

field at Saratoga and rose to the rank of major general in the 
Continental Army. 

For New York 
William Floyd 

Wealtii and station with poverty and obscurity clasped 
hands equally patriotic in the unselfish, and self-sacrificing 
heroism of our nation's founding. Their blended biographies 
tell that 

"Honor and shame from no condition rise, 
Act well your part, there all the honor lies." 

William Floyd was born in Brookhaven, Long Island, De- 
cember 17, 1734, the son of a wealthy landholder, who left him 
at an early age the chief heir of his fortune. 

He was of Welsh descent, his grandfather having emigrated 
from Wales to Long Island in 1680. 

His life was one of luxury and social distinction until his 
energies were enlisted in the cause of freedom, when he be- 
came one of the most aggressive of revolutionary patriots. 

He was elected to the first Continental Congress and con- 
tinued a member throughout the entire revolution, closing his 
long service therein April 26, 1783. 

He was appointed to command the Long Island militia prior 
to his election to Congress, and by the activity he displayed 
forced the British to abandon the invasion of the island first 
threatened by them. 

During his congressional career he was constant in com- 
mittee service, his business acumen making him of great prac- 
tical service in providing the ways and means for maintaining 
the war. 

While he was in Congress, Long Island was overrun and oc- 
cupied by the British, his family driven from home, his house 
occupied by the enemy, his lands devastated, and he robbed of 
its income during the entire seven years' struggle. 

The rich as well as the poor sacrificed and suffered to save 
and establish our liberty. 



106 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

In May, 1777, the New York convention voted a resolution 
of thanks to him and his associates in the Congress for their 
faithful services to the colony and the country. The latter 
part of that year he entered the Senate of New York at the 
first session under the state's new constitution, and gave ma- 
terial aid in framing the new code of laws suitable to the new 
conditions. His reports to that body, in which he remained a 
member while at the same period in Congress, on financial mat- 
ters, taxation and currency were models of political economy 
and judicious statesmanship. 

In 1779 the legislature placed him on the committee to 
make provisions against the monopolies which acquired control 
of supplies, and whose greed raised prices until the country 
was threatened with famine. 

Ours are not the only times when monopolies clutched the 
throat of the country. 

In the Continental Congress he had become a member of 
the admiralty and treasury board. 

In 1779 the Senate of New York requested his return to 
that body from the Congress for the all-important considera- 
tion of the currency question. In it he took a firm stand, but 
with the minority, against making bills of credit a legal tender ; 
and for the necessity of enlarging the powers of the confed- 
erated government, whose weakness was painfully demonstrat- 
ing its inability to cope with the necessities of united national 
action. 

Returning to Congress, he was engrossed with the distract- 
ing claims of some of the states to the "Western lands, which 
were sowing the seeds of discord among the colonies, so need- 
ful of harmony. 

In 1783, after seven years' absence from his wrecked and 
despoiled home, domestic necessities forced him to retire from 
the national legislature and attempt the rehabilitation of his 
estate, now but little more than bare land, and from which 
his family had been exiled during that time. 

He was, however, continued a senator in New York's leg- 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 107 

islature until 1789, where he presided in absence of the 
lieutenant-governor. 

There, with Lewis Morris, Ezra L 'Hommidieu, Zephania 
Piatt, David Gelston, Samuel Jones and others honored in the 
state 's history, he helped to prepare the code of laws that made 
New York a leader in the state legislation of the country to 
protect and secure property rights, and promote public and 
private prosperity. 

Says Sanderson : 

''The early education of General Floyd had not extended 
to the refinements of metaphysical science, and although his 
understanding was enriched with extensive reading, and stored 
with a great fund of useful knowledge, the early formation 
of his mind contributed to confirm the bent of his natural 
genius, which classed him unequivocally with the former. He 
was not of that number who astonish by the splendour of their 
conceptions, or amuse or interest us by the brilliancy of their 
fancy, and the ingenuity of their speculations. His thoughts 
were the representations of real existences, and his plans were 
regulated by a full view of their practicability; his reasoning 
was the logic of nature, and his conclusions, the demonstrations 
of experience. Hence it arose, that in the accomplishment of 
his purposes, he seemed insensible to every difficulty; obstruc- 
tions wasted away before his perseverance, and his resolution 
and firmness triumphed over every obstacle. He was remarka- 
ble for the justness of his observations, and the accuracy of 
his judgment, and many anecdotes are related of his coolness 
under sudden embarrassments. In his conduct, he was methodi- 
cal, and particularly systematic in the observance of general 
principles, which seemed to be strongly defined in his mind; 
and every idea of transgressing them was banished from his 
thoughts. 

"His person was of a middle stature, with nothing particu- 
larly striking. But there was a natural dignity in his deport- 
ment, which never failed to impress beholders. As a politician 
his integrity was unblemished, nor is it known that, during 



108 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

the height of party animosity, his motives were ever impeached. 
He seldom participated in debate ; his opinions were the result 
of his own reflections, and he left others to the same resource. 
He pursued his object openly and fearlessly; and disdained 
to resort to artifice to secure its accomplishment. His political 
course was uniform and independent, and marked with a 
candor and sincerity which attracted the approbation of those 
who differed from him in opinion. The most flattering com- 
mentary upon his public life will be found in the frequent and 
constant proofs of popular favor, which he received for more 
than fifty years. 

"In private life he was fond of society, but always observed 
a measured decorum, which repressed familiarity, and chilled 
every approach at intimacy. He was highly respected in the 
society in which he lived, and left to his descendants a name 
of which they will long he proud." 

In 1800 he was one of New York's presidential electors, and 
warmly supported Thomas Jefferson for President against 
Aaron Burr of his own state — twice thereafter he served in 
the same high position. 

In 1801 he served in the convention to revise the constitu- 
tion, and was prevailed upon to again enter the Senate of his 
state, but the infirmities of advancing age barred much of his 
active duty therein. 

At the venerable age of eighty-seven, August 4, 1821, in 
Oneida County, New York, he was gathered to his fathers, his 
years full of honor, his life a lesson that riches are best used 
when devoted to public good. 

Philip Livingston 

Philip Livingston was born in Albany, New York, January 
15, 1716, and died in New York City, June 12, 1778. 

He was a member of that illustrious family, descended from 
Lord Livingston, guardian of Mary, Queen of Scots, which con- 
tributed so many of its sons to the galaxy of statesmen and 
jurists, honored in and makers of American history. 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 109 

Robert Livingston, the first of the family in America, like 
William Penn, obtained by purchase from the Indians the title 
to a vast tract of land on the Hudson, which was confirmed by 
the English governor, Dongan, and by special patent of George 
I. created "The Manor of Livingston," giving the proprietor 
judicial rights, as well as the right to representation in the 
Provincial Congress. 

Philip Livingston graduated at Yale College, and became 
one of the leading importers of New York City, Said Charles 
Hardy, ''Among the considerable merchants of this city, no 
one is more esteemed for energy, promptness, honesty and pub- 
lic spirit than Philip Livingston." In 1754 he was elected one 
of the seven aldermen of New York City, and held that posi- 
tion for nine years. The same year he was elected to the Pro- 
vincial Assembly, and with a brief interval continued a mem- 
ber until its dissolution in 1769. The occasion of that interval 
displayed the courage and the popularity of the man. He had 
just been elected president of the assembly when he opposed 
the taxation schemes of Great Britain, and was unseated by 
the Tory majority. His constituents at once returned him. 
From that time he became a leader in arousing the spirit of 
opposition to British aggression, and was one of the principal 
patriots who occasioned the calling of the Stamp Act Congress, 
in which he took a prominent part. 

The assembly elected in 1768 was overwhelmingly Ameri- 
can in sentiment. Among its members were George Clinton, 
the first governor, and Pierre Van Cortland, the first lieuten- 
ant-governor, Generals Philip Schuyler and Abraham Ten 
Broeck, Charles De Witt and Henry Wisner. Livingston was 
unanimously elected speaker of this assembly, which was so 
outspoken for colonial rights that the royal governor dis- 
banded it. 

In 1774 he drew up a spirited address to the English lieuten- 
ant-governor, Colden, which won the admiration of his own 
and the other colonies. In that year he was sent to the Con-* 
tinental Congress, of which he continued a member until his 



110 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

death. "With Richard Henry Lee and John Jay he assisted in 
preparing the two state papers put forth by the first congress. 
He was on many of the principal committees, notably the treas- 
ury board and the marine committee, on which his ability and 
experience as a business man made him most efficient. 

He was the correspondent, and became the intimate friend 
of Edmund Burke, whose stand in the British parliament was 
largely due to the information given him by Mr. Livingston, as 
shown by the use of that information in Burke's celebrated 
speeches in behalf of the oppressed colonies. At the same time 
that he was a member of the Continental Congress he was the 
president of the New York assembly. When the adoption of 
the Declaration of Independence hung trembling in the bal- 
ance, it was the eloquence and influence of Philip Livingston, 
who had so much to lose if disaster befell the undertaking, 
that induced that assembly to vote the instructions to the dele- 
gates from this state to sign that instrument. His fruitful 
labors in the Continental Congress and his own state, in a 
grateful country's memory, place him high among the un- 
selfish, courageous patriots who dared their all for the cause 
of liberty and humanity. 

He was a senator in the first legislature of reorganized New 
York, and one of the f ramers of that state 's constitution. His 
attendance at the last session of the Continental Congress at 
which he was present was at the special request of the New 
York assembly. He was in feeble health, and his obedience to 
this call of honor hastened his death, thus verily giving his 
life in the service of the country, to aid which he had disposed 
of a great part of his large estate. 

He married Christina, daughter of Col. Dierck Ten Broeck, 
by whom he had five sons and three daughters. 

His home on Brooklyn Heights was one of the famous man- 
sions of the city. There Washington held his council of war 
when it was decided that the Americans should abandon Long 
Island to the British. That palatial home the British turned 
into a hospital for their soldiers. 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION m 

He was a man of active and sincere piety, and contributed 
greatly to the business, moral and intellectual advancenient of 
New York, as shown by his being one of the founders of King's 
College, of the New York Society Library, of the New York 
Chamber of Commerce, and of the New York Hospital. He 
also founded the chair of divinity at Yale College that bears 
his name, and was one of the chief contributors to the building 
of the first Methodist church erected in America. 

His great and useful erudition, his vast experience and 
sound judgment, his active philanthropy made his death a na- 
tional calamity. He was universally mourned, his funeral at- 
tended by the entire Continental Congress, the members of the 
state assembly, and the day thereof observed as a day of 
mourning throughout the entire state of New York. 

Francis Lewis 

Francis Lewis was born in Landaff, Wales, in March, 1713 ; 
was educated at the celebrated Westminster School, London; 
early became a successful merchant; emigrated to New York 
in 1735 ; and became one of its most extensive traders with for- 
eign countries. 

One of his first shipments to Europe was a cargo of wheat, 
which it took both New York and Philadelphia to supply, and 
was the subject of much comment abroad. 

He took an active part in the colonial wars with the French 
and Indians, and was made a prisoner when Oswego was cap- 
tured by Montcalm. For his valiant services in these wars the 
British government gave him five thousand acres of land. 

It is related, but is of doubtful authenticity, that Montcalm 
gave Lewis to the Indian chief ; that the chief found the Welch 
language, which Lewis spoke fluently, so closely resembled the 
Indian tongue that he asked leave to return him to his people, 
but the request was denied. 

After these wars Lewis became one of the most active oppo- 
nents of British encroachment on American rights ; was a lead- 
ing member of the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 ; and was one of 



112 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

the first to enrol his name among the "Sons of Liberty." His 
mercantile establishment was a leading house in New York. 

In 1775 he was elected a delegate from New York to the 
Continental Congress and was continued a member until 1779. 
He was not a speaker, and took no part in its debates, but in 
the committee work of procuring supplies and munitions of 
war rendered efficient service, and on his retiring from Con- 
gress was appointed a commissioner for the board of admiralty. 

When first elected to Congress he removed his family and 
household goods to his palatial country home on Long Island. 
"When the British army overran that island his signing the 
Declaration made him the object of special vindictiveness. 
Every vestige of his property was destroyed, his wife impris- 
oned, and so cruelly treated that Congress took official action 
concerning the brutality. From the effects of this inhumanity, 
after a lingering illness, she died. 

From affluence he was reduced to abject poverty. His lot 
was the hardest of any of the patriots held in the country's 
reverent memory as signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. He died in New York City, December 30, 1803. 

Lewis Morris 

The Morris family is of German origin, and traces its 
ancestry back to a successful invader of Ireland in the reign 
of Henry II., who gave him a large property in Wales in com- 
pensation for his conquest in Ireland. Richard Morris, a de- 
scendant, was a prominent leader in the armies of Cromwell 
and after the restoration of the king, came to New York in 
1650, and purchased from the Indians a large estate in West- 
chester County, which was known as the manor of Morrisania. 
The family became one of the most noted and influential in the 
state. This pioneer died in 1673, leaving an only son, Lewis, 
who became chief justice of the province of New York; 
acting governor of New Jersey in 1731, and governor from 
1738 to 1746. His son, Lewis 2d, was chief justice of the Vice- 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION 113 

Admiralty Court and one of the most famous lawyers of the 
province. 

Lewis Morris, 3d, the signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, his son, was born at Morrisania in 1726. 

He was a graduate of Yale College, the heir of a large for- 
tune, and several times a member of the legislature of New 
York. He was one of the few prominent men too zealously in 
favor of independence to be sent to the Congress of 1774, which 
Congress was called to lay the grievances of the colonies before 
the British authorities and amicably induce them to do justice 
to and repeal the oppressive measures with which they had 
afflicted the American people. He entered that Congress in 
1775 and was continued a member until 1777, when he was 
succeeded by his half brother, the illustrious Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, one of the foremost framers of the Constitution. 

No member of the Continental Congress was a more en- 
thusiastic and devoted advocate for independence. He rose to 
the rank of a major general in the Revolutionary Army, in 
which three of his sons served with distinction, and did 
effective work in organizing and equipping the militia of New 
York. He was an especial sufferer at the hands of the British, 
his estate being laid waste by them during the war. When 
signing the Declaration, he predicted this w^ould be done, but 
with the spirit of a patriot counted his loss at nothing if the 
independence of his country could be achieved. After the revo- 
lution he devoted himself to the rebuilding of his devastated 
estate, declined to take any further part iu official life, and at 
his ancestral home died January 22, 1798. 

For New Jersey 
Richard Stockton 

Eichard Stockton, grandfather of this signer of the Declara- 
tion, was a wealthy emigrant to Long Island in 1670. About 
1680 he bought a tract of 6,400 acres of land in New Jersey, 
of which Princeton is nearly the center. There with the first 
settlers of that section he lived until 1705. 



114 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRaMERS 

His youngest son, John, became the owner of the family 
home; a liberal patron of the college at Princeton; and for 
many years a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. 

Richard, the signer, was born at this old family home, 
October 1, 1730, and graduated at Princeton with the highest 
honors of his class in 1748, the first annual commencement at 
Nassau Hall. 

He was admitted to the bar in 1754, sustained his early 
promise of a brilliant career, and extended his practice to 
Pennsylvania, where he became intimate with John Dickinson 
and other leaders of their day. 

In 1766 he visited England, where his reputation for dis- 
tinguished ability was so well known that he was accorded 
unusual courtesies by the King and the most eminent men in 
the realm. 

He was presented at court by one of the royal ministers, 
and delivered to the King in person the address of the board 
of trustees of the college of New Jersey thanking his Majesty 
for the repeal of the stamp act, and most favorably impressing 
the royal ruler by his grace and accomplishments. 

His loyal services in Great Britain to his college were so 
great and so extensive, that on his return its board of trustees 
voted him their unanimous thanks. 

He was entertained by the Marquis of Rockingham, Chat- 
ham and other friends of the colonies, and by his firm, force- 
ful and intelligent portrayal of the position of the colonies 
added to their correct comprehension of the existing condi- 
tions, and fastened their friendship for us. 

He visited Scotland, where he was most graciously enter- 
tained by the illustrious Earl of Leven, and at a public dinner 
in his honor was accorded the high honor of the freedom of the 
city of Edinburgh, conferred by the unanimous vote of the 
Lord Provost and Council. 

On his visit to Paisley, near Glasgow, he met and induced 
the celebrated Dr. Witherspoon, who, on account of his fam- 
ily's home-love had declined the offered presidency of the col- 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION 115 

4 

lege of New Jersey, to accept that high position, and thereby- 
brought to American citizenship one of the most learned and 
loyal patriots that ever illuminated our history, a co-signer 
with him of the Declaration. 

Visiting Dublin, he was profoundly impressed by the coun- 
try, and people, and was ever after one of the most cordial 
and sympathetic of Ireland's friends. 

Two occurrences there nearly cost his life. He was attacked 
by a midnight marauder, whom he successfully repelled with 
a small sword, cherished afterwards by his family, and by ac- 
cidental delay of his baggage escaped sailing in a vessel that 
was wrecked, and every soul on board lost. He frequently 
referred to these events in which he felt he was providentially 
preserved. 

He frequently visited "Westminster Hall and studied with 
profound interest the efforts of such great lawyers as Sir 
Fletcher Norton, John Dunning, Charles Yorke, Moreton, Eyre 
and Blackstone ; the decisions of Mansfield, Camden, Yates, 
Wilmot, and Bathurst, the great jurists who glorified the Brit- 
ish bench ; and sought kindred instruction and high incentive 
from the eloquent efforts of Chatham and Burke. 

He often referred to the delineation of Shaksperian char- 
acter by Garrick, who so greatly added to the fame of the 
English stage. 

No idle curiosity prompted him and his like among our 
fathers in utilizing such opportunities. They teach American 
youth the educational value of seeing and hearing the great 
actors in every department of public effort; that such ad- 
vantages may be made the great university of after-college 
life, of uplifting and inspiring educational value. 

His account of his meeting with Chesterfield, whose reputa- 
tion is that of the first of English beaux, throws a better light 
on that remarkable character. He said he first saw in Chester- 
field an infirm, toothless and deaf old man, but when he began 
to speak his animation and intelligence made one forget his 
infirmities, and he saw an intelligence that charmed, and 



116 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

marked a man far above the mere vanities of dress and style. 

His large professional business during his absence had been 
cared for by his brother-in-law, Elias Boudinot, afterwards 
one of the presidents of the Continental Congress, but that he 
soon relinquished. 

Upon his return in 1768 to his native land, he was made one 
of the royal judges. In 1774 he became one of the judges of 
the Supreme Court of New Jersey, associated with his old pre- 
ceptor in law, David Ogden. 

He was then enjoying the highest honors of his state, and 
in the possession of an ample estate that enabled him to fill his 
home with an extensive library and the choicest paintings and 
works of art, and was an especial favorite of the British gov- 
ernment. 

When the storm of the revolution burst upon his country 
he gave up his places of lucrative honor with the royal govern- 
ment and heroically cast his lot with his native people. 

Like many of his patriotiq associates in the Congress, he 
shrunk from separation from the mother country, but toward 
the close of the debate on the great question of independence, 
joined in an able address in favor of it. 

He faithfully served in the laborious work of many im- 
portant committees of the Continental Congress. 

In September, 1776, the vote for governor of New Jersey 
was a tie between him and William Livingston. He consented 
to the choice of his rival and was at once unanimously elected 
chief justice of the state, but declined the office. 

With George Clymer of Pennsylvania he was sent to inspect 
and make provision for the northern army under General 
Schuyler, after completing which he resumed his seat in Con- 
gress. 

He was compelled to remove his family from his palatial 
home. It lay in the path of the British troops, and was com- 
pletely despoiled by them. His library was destroyed, his 
estate devastated, the paintings of himself and family pierced 
with bayonets, and every indignity heaped upon his inanimate 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION II7 

possessions. He was made a prisoner, and confined in the 
common jail in New York, where he was treated with such 
barbarity that the Congress by resolution directed General 
"Washington to remonstrate with General Howe about it, with 
the view of retaliation upon British prisoners. 

Many distinguished lawyers enjoyed his tutelage, among 
them Elias Boudinot ; "William Paterson, one of the framers of 
the Constitution; Joseph Reed and Jonathan D. Sergeant, of 
Philadelphia, and William Davies, of Virginia, all historic char- 
acters. 

He was nearly six feet tall, of commanding presence ; light 
gray eyes ; of hasty temper, impulsive, but not vindictive ; and 
of great coolness and courage in the face of crisis or danger. 
He was especially skillful as a swordsman, as his encounter in 
Ireland proved; as a horseman; and in the athletic games of 
the day. 

Upon his release from prison he returned to his ruined 
homestead, now but bare lands, and was compelled to accept 
the generosity of friends to meet actual necessity. 

Broken in health by the harsh severities of his imprison- 
ment; suffering with malignant cancer and other bodily ail- 
ments that made his agonies of body and mind acute, this un- 
complaining patriot died at his birth place February 28, 1781. 

Of such heroic mould were our country's founders. 

He saw the dawn, but never the rising sun of the Republic 
he gave his all — his life — to make free and independent. In 
grateful honor America perpetuates his memory. 

John Witherspoon 

Stubborn and hardy Scotland contributed its inflexible 
courage and unyielding conscience to the glory of the achieve- 
ment of American independence, and militant Christianity, 
from the pulpit, clasped hands with the heroic valor of the 
frontiersman in the struggle that brought into the family of 
nations the new republic that has bedome a world-power for 



118 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

peace, progress, science, art and all the accomplishments of 
advancing civilization. 

John Witherspoon was born in Gifford, Scotland, near Edin- 
burg, February 5, 1722. 

He was a direct descendant of John Knox, the hero of the 
reformation in Scotland. His father was a Scotch clergyman 
of great learning and piety, such as has generally characterized 
the Scotch ministry. 

He was educated at Edinburg, where he was noted for his 
discussion of theological questions ; at the age of twenty-one 
was licensed to preach the Gospel ; and located at Beith, in the 
west of Scotland, where he endeared himself to his parishion- 
ers. 

In 1746 he had an experience somewhat amusing, but not 
very comfortable. "While viewing the battle of Falkirk he was 
taken prisoner and confined in the castle of Doune. With his 
fellow prisoners he planned to escape by making a rope of 
their blankets, but the rope broke before it came his time to let 
himself down, whereby some of the prisoners were badly in- 
jured, and he decided to remain until liberated in a less risky 
manner. 

From Beith he went to Paisley, then a flourishing town 
noted for its manufactures and the intelligence of its people. 
There he gained a high reputation as a preacher, and was in- 
dted to take charge of churches in Dublin and also at Rotter- 
dam, both of which he declined. 

At this time his high reputation brought him the offer of 
the presidency of the college of New Jersey at Princeton. An 
old bachelor relative of large fortune offered to make him his 
heir if he would not go to America. This did not deter his ac- 
ceptance, but the attachment of his wife for her native land 
did. Later through the able influence of Eichard Stockton, 
aided by Benjamin Rush, he accepted the position and in 1768 
became the sixth president of the college. His fame as a 
scholar brought to the institution a large increase of students, 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 119 

as well as needed and substantial endowments from people in 
all of the colonies from Massachusetts to Virginia. 

His great erudition introduced a new era into the educa- 
tional excellence of that great university, and in every depart- 
ment made it, what it has ever since been, one of the leading 
educational institutions of the country — indeed, of the world. 

He became thoroughly American from the day that he 
landed on our shores. His sense of justice, his profound knowl- 
edge of governmental history and of national legislation, made 
him one of the heartiest and ablest supporters of American 
rights. 

In 1776 he was elected to the convention to frame the con- 
stitution for the state of New Jersey and in that assemblage 
became noted as profound a statesman as he had been famous 
as a philosopher and minister. This led to his election to the 
Continental Congress in June, 1776. 

In debating the question as to whether the Declaration of 
Independence should be made, one of the members of Congress 
said: *'We were not yet ripe for a Declaration of Independ- 
ence." Dr. "Witherspoon replied: "In my judgment, sir, we 
are not only ripe, but rotting." 

He was a constant attendant upon all of the sessions until 
1782, excepting the year of 1780. He was one of the most elo- 
quent and earnest supporters of the Declaration and of the 
important measures of the Congress during all of that time, 
and no native American son gave a more unselfish, arduous and 
patriotic devotion to his adopted country than did he. During 
the darkest hours that depressed our patriot fathers he never 
lost his courage or abated his confidence in the success of the 
struggle, but with all his Scotch persistence stood like one of 
the rocky mountains of his native land in his firm support of 
the American revolution. When our army was on the eve of 
dissolution, ill fed, poorly clad, and scantily equipped, he 
served on the committee with William Paca and George Ross 
to visit General Washington, and inquire into and redress the 
grievances of the soldiers. His cheerful and inspiring courage 



120 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

and his practical work did much to put new life into the 
failing spirits of the army. At this dark hour he joined with 
Richard Henry Lee and John Adams in the splendid appeal ad- 
dressed to the states to rouse them to renewed action. Among 
the many important committees upon which he served he was 
especially active as a member of the board of war. 

The admirable publications of Congress calling the Ameri- 
can people to seasons of fasting and prayer came from his pen. 

The barbarities with which American prisoners were treated 
by the British brought forth the protest from the committee 
upon which he and Gouverneur Morris were leading members 
and in which his position is shown in the following conclusion : 

"While the shadow of hope remained that our enemies 
could be taught by our example, to respect those laws which 
are held sacred among civilized nations, and to comply with 
the dictates of a religion which they pretend, in common with 
us, to believe and revere, they have been left to the influence 
of that religion and that example. But, since their incorrigible 
dispositions cannot be touched by kindness and compassion, it 
becomes our duty, by other means, to vindicate the rights of 
humanity. "We, therefore, the Congress of the United States 
of America, do solemnly declare and proclaim, that if our 
enemies presume to execute their threats, or persist in their 
present career of barbarity, we will take such exemplary ven- 
geance as shall deter others from a like conduct. We appeal 
to that God who seareheth the hearts of men, for the rectitude 
of our intentions ; and in His holy presence, declare, that as we 
are not moved by any light and hasty suggestions of anger or 
revenge, so, through every possible change of fortune, we will 
adhere to this our determination." 

He was an important member of the finance committee of 
Congress and of other committees that required his extensive 
travel throughout the country in harmonizing discordant ele- 
ments and reviving patriotic zeal. His firm support of the 
measures for a sound currency and his intelligent comprehen- 
sion of financial matters was second to none of the able finan- 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 121 

ciers who distinguished the Continental Congress. He believed 
in the cultivation of a public conscience and in not making 
promises without shouldering the burden of their exact per- 
formance. His arguments against scaling the public debt and 
in favor of meeting it to the fullest, evinced the loftiest states- 
manship and highest character. 

He was one of the most earnest and forceful advocates for 
establishing a national system of government, and giving to 
it powers far beyond what wer& attempted in the feeble Arti- 
cles of Confederation, and stood far in advance of many of his 
fellows in his foresight of the need of a strong and central 
government. Had he been heeded years of struggle and suffer- 
ing and much precious blood might have been saved. 

The Constitution that thereafter created the national gov- 
ernment with such powers as he coveted it to have, found in 
him one of the ablest and most influential advocates for its 
adoption, and he had the gratification of seeing his state be- 
come the third to ratify it, and to do so by unanimous vote. 

At the same time that he was president of the college at 
Princeton he was professor of divinity therein and pastor of a 
Presbyterian Church. 

While he would have ably filled any cabinet position, even 
the presidency, it was in the pulpit he was at his best. 

He wrote out, but never read his sermons. 

"It was impossible to hear him without attention, or attend 
to him without improvement. He possessed a happy talent of 
unfolding the strict and proper meaning of the sacred writer, 
in any text from which he chose to discourse ; of concentrating 
and giving perfect unity to every subject which he treated; 
and of presenting to the hearer the most clear and compre- 
hensive views of it. His sermons were distinguished for their 
judicious and perspicuous divisions ; for mingling profound re- 
marks on human life with the illustration of divine truth ; and 
for the lucid order that reigned throughout the whole. In his 
discourses he loved, chiefly, to dAvell on the great doctrines of 
divine grace, and on the distinguishing truths of the gospel. 



122 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

These he brought, as far as possible, to the level of every un- 
derstanding and the feeling of every heart. He seldom led his 
hearers into speculative discussions, and never entertained 
them by a mere display of talents ; all ostentation in the pulpit 
he viewed with aversion and contempt. During the whole 
period of his presidency he was extremely solicitous to train 
those studious youths who had the ministry of the gospel in 
view in such a manner as to secure the greatest respectability, 
as well as usefulness, in that holy profession. It was his con- 
stant advice to young preachers, never to enter the pulpit with- 
out the most careful preparation ; and it was his ambition and 
his hope to render the sacred ministry the most learned, as 
well as the most pious and exemplary, body of men in the 
republic." 

He was more conspicuous in the councils of his church in 
Scotland and here than in the congress of his adopted country, 
and his writings made him a power among all the Protestant 
countries of Europe. 

He was of the orthodox school and, while a progressive 
man, opposed what was called the moderate or more liberal 
school. Speaking of one of the latter when asked if he was a 
moderate man, he answered, "0, yes, fierce for moderation." 

His "Essay on the Nature, Value and Uses of Money" has 
been commended by financiers as the best that ever ap- 
peared in this country on that intricate subject. 

His contributions to the press on the absorbing question 
of the day, "written at the dawn of the revolution, depict in 
striking colors the depth of his political foresight, by the 
recommendation of a series of important measures, almost all 
of which were subsequently adopted, at various periods. In 
the essay *0n Conducting the American Controversy,' his ideas 
are not less lucid than sagacious ; and his remarks 'On the Con- 
test Between Great Britain and America' tend to establish the 
fact that the people of America, so far from being seditious 
and factious, entertained a strong attachment to the mother 
country, and attached high feelings of pride to their descent; 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 123 

— SO much so, indeed, that when an American spoke of going 
to England he always called it going home. In a communica- 
tion to the editor of the Scots' Magazine on the 'Ignorance 
of the British With Respect to America,' he elucidates the 
subject in a masterly manner, and concluded with the follow- 
ing fact : Some years ago a frigate came from England with 
despatches for many or most of the governors of provinces in 
North America. The captain had orders to go first to New 
York, and from thence to proceed to Georgia, the Carolinas, 
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the Jerseys. "When he 
arrived at New York he delivered his despatches there, and. 
mentioned his orders. The governor told him, 'If you will 
give me the letters for the governors of New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, I will undertake to have them delivered in forty-eight 
hours; but if you take the route prescribed to you, perhaps 
they will not receive them in three months.' To which the 
captain replied, 'I do not care a farthing about the matter; I 
will stick to my instructions. ' ' ' 

As a rule ministers and academicians are not credited with 
special sagacity in the details of government or administration, 
the intricate questions of finance, or the profound work of con- 
stitutional construction, nor is this to their discredit. 

Yet here was a man, a student bred, a minister from man- 
hood's dawn, who, among the eminent men whose life work 
had been affairs of government or finance, knew no superior in 
practical suggestion or in constructive statesmanship. 

Almost every idea he advanced, every policy he advocated, 
time has shown to be correct. 

He opposed the fee or commission system to purchasers of 
army supplies and favored a salaried public service ; he op- 
posed the emission of paper money, and favored a system of 
taxation that would enable the government to pay as it prom- 
ised; he opposed the weak form of confederation and favored 
the establishment of a strong national government at the very 
start, a thorough system in every department. 

It is difficult now to realize the fact that in 1780 our army 



124 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

was nearly a week at a time without bread; again for as long 
without meat ; once or twice for three days without either, and 
during such times actually lived upon parched corn and pota- 
toes. That their clothes were in tatters, that at the battle of 
Eutaw Springs Gen. Greene's official report shows scores 
fought stark naked, and that the "tattered regimentals" was 
no poetic dream, but dread reality. That no pay for months 
and months, with all their hardships, were driving them to 
madness and mutiny. That our own government, that year, 
discredited its own depreciated paper money by offering to ac- 
cept coin at the rate of one dollar for every forty of its paper 
in public dues. 

As Dr. Witherspoon said, "the first great deliberate breach 
of public faith;" as the Duke de Vergennes denounced, "an 
act of bankruptcy on the part of our government." 

What was the only national government then had no 
authority whatever to collect by its own officials in the several 
states the share due by each to maintain the army or pay 
the common public expense, but was forced to leave to those 
states the discharge of this duty so vital to all. 

When the revolution began, each state, swollen with a sense 
of its own importance, had no other idea but that, on the 
achievement of independence, each would set up a separate 
government for itself. A lasting central government was 
neither looked forward to nor wished — indeed was thought im- 
possible, and limited as were the national powers — if any at 
all — given by the Articles of Confederation, it was next to im- 
possible to secure their adoption. 

"He strongly combatted the opinion expressed in congress, 
that a lasting confederacy among the states, for their future 
security and improvement, was impracticable. He declared 
that such sentiments were calculated greatly to derange the 
minds of the people, and weaken their efforts in defence of the 
country. 'I confess,' said he, 'it would to me greatly diminish 
the glory and importance of the struggle, whether considered 
as for the rights of mankind in general, or for the prosperity 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 125 

and happiness of this continent in future times. It would quite 
depreciate the object of hope, as well as place it at a greater 
distance. For what would it signify to risk our possessions 
and shed our blood to set ourselves free from the encroach- 
ments and oppression of Great Britain, with a certainty, as 
soon as peace was settled upon them, of a more lasting war — 
a more unnatural, more bloody and much more hopeless war 
among the colonies themselves ? Some of us consider ourselves 
as acting for posterity at present, having little expectation of 
living to see all things fully settled and the good consequences 
of liberty taking effect. But how much more uncertain the 
hope of seeing the internal contests of the colonies settled upon 
a lasting and equitable footing?' 'If, at present, when the 
danger is yet imminent, when it is so far from being over that 
it is but coming to its height, we shall find it impossible to 
agree upon the terms of this confederacy, what madness is it 
to suppose that there ever will be a time, or that circumstances 
will so change, as to make it even probable that it will be done 
at an after season? Will not the very same difficulties that 
are in our way be in the way of those who shall come after us ? 
Is it possible that they should be ignorant of them, or inat- 
tentive to them? Will they not have the same jealousies of 
each other, the same attachment to local prejudices and par- 
ticular interests? So certain is this that I look upon it as on 
the repentance of a sinner — every day's delay, though it adds 
to the necessity, yet augments the difficulty and takes from 
the inclination." 

A sentiment expressed in this debate, that it was to be 
expected from the nature of men that a time must come when 
a confederacy would be dissolved and broken to pieces, and 
which seemed to create an indifference as to the success of 
the measure, produced the following burst of eloquence: 'I am 
none of those who either deny or conceal the depravity of 
human nature, till it is purified by the light of truth and re- 
newed by the spirit of the living God. Yet I apprehend there 
is no force in that reasoning at all. Shall we establish nothing 



126 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

good, because we know it cannot be eternal? Shall we live 
without government, because every constitution has its old 
age and its period? Because we know that we shall die, shall 
we take no pains to preserve or lengthen out life? Far from 
it, sir; it only requires the more watchful attention to settle 
the government on the best principles and in the wisest man- 
ner, that it may last as long as the nature of things will ad- 
mit.' Dr. Witherspoon concluded his eloquent arguments in 
favor of a well-planned confederation in the following terms: 
'For all these reasons, sir, I humbly apprehend that every argu- 
ment from honor, interest, safety and necessity, conspire in 
pressing us to a confederacy; and if it be seriously attempted 
I hope, by the blessing of God upon our endeavors, it will be 
happily accomplished.' " 

His reading of character was almost intuitive. His knowl- 
edge of men, of human nature, was greater than his knowledge 
of books. 

His fondness for the young was a marked characteristic, 
and made his life as an educator distinctly serviceable. 

Some of his writings were of satirical character, and evince 
a talent equal to Swift, while in good humored wit he had few 
superiors. 

When it was proposed by congress to present a sword to 
the tardy officer who brought the news of Burgoyne's sur- 
render, he moved to amend by presenting him, not a sword, 
but a pair of spurs. 

He was twice married. His first wife was one of the noble 
Scotch mothers, pious and benevolent, but of very limited 
education. 

Of their three sons, the eldest, while holding the rank of 
major, was killed at the battle of Germantown ; the second son 
became a physician of reputable practice ; the third, a lawyer, 
located in North Carolina. The elder daughter married Dr. 
Samuel Smith, who succeeded him as president of the college; 
the other. Dr. David Ramsay, the historian. 



THE SIGNEES OF THE UECLAKATION 127 

His second marriage was in his old age, to a young woman, 
and subjected him to severe criticism. 

He was over six feet in height, of imposing build, dignified 
demeanor, and is said to have possessed more of what is called 
presence than any man in his time save Washington. 

He died at Princeton, New Jersey, November 15, 1794. 

No public character in our history displayed greater versa- 
tility of talent than this remarkable man. 

His career in congress proved him to be not only an orator 
of the first rank, but a statesman of profound and practical 
knowledge of government. "Whether on the floor as a debater, 
or in the laborious work of the committee, or in conference 
with commanders at the front, or the rank and file in the field, 
he displayed discretion, tact and judgment of the highest. 
His burning patriotism was an inspiration to the abused sol- 
dier, the misused officer, the heroes who bore the brunt of un- 
paid and unprovided for service. His recent coming to the 
country kept him free from the thraldom of local jealousies 
and the intoxication of colonial vanity and sectional prejudice 
that so hampered many in agreeing to national action. He 
saw and felt that we were no more than fighting the same 
battle our English ancestors had fought at home for centuries 
— the right to representation in being taxed, and the right to 
local self-government, where the local needs were so utterly 
misunderstood in the ancestral home. But few of our leaders 
except Washington, took so broad a national view of our needs 
and situation as he. Nor are they so much to blame. He had 
no bred in the bone fear of a central and supreme authority as 
their past experiences gave them, and that made, first colonial, 
later, state supremacy so much with many of our people. The 
common evils that crushed, the uniform oppressions that 
weighed upon and galled each alike, he fully comprehended, 
appreciated and detested. These his British antecedents made 
him as keenly sensitive to as any colonist. With less preju- 
diced and clearer view he could see the necessity of united 
action under a central government, strong enough in its own 



138 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PEAMEES 

conferred and possessed powers to enforce its own decrees and 
reach the entire people without the halting intermediary action 
of the state authority. Hence, at the start, he denounced the 
weakness of the articles of confederation and wisely contended 
that the first need was a definite and authoritative united gov- 
ernment possessed of national powers wherein it was of su- 
preme authority. 

The wisdom of his advocacy for such national government 
became more and more apparent as time passed, and Iqd leaders 
and the people to the same opinion. He saw in the constitu- 
tional convention the crowning of his hopes and labors, and 
no one lent more influential aid in securing the adoption of its 
immortal work by his own and the other states. 

With this accomplished he left the stage of public life and 
devoted his remaining years to the care and development of 
the great university at whose call he honored our country with 
his citizenship and splendid services, and to which he had 
given the life of his son and his own years of devoted 
patriotism. 

Francis Hopkinson. 

Francis Hopkinson was born in Philadelphia, September 21, 
1737, and died May 9, 1791. 

His father was an Englishman who came to this country as 
a British official; his mother, a woman of high attainments, a 
niece of the Bishop of Worcester. 

His father died when Francis was fourteen years of age, 
and his mental and moral training was due to his widowed 
mother. He became an adept in science, was aii intimate friend 
of Benjamin Franklin. In some of the publications of that 
day it is stated that he first called Franklin's attention to 
attracting electricity by means of a pointed instead of a blunt 
instrument, so as to relieve the attraction from the explosion 
and shock which, before that discovery, had attended it. 

His mother, appreciating his genius, made every sacrifice 
to accomplish his education, and he was a member of the first 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION I39 

class that graduated from the College of Philadelphia, after- 
wards the University of Pennsylvania. 

He became an eminent lawyer and an intimate and esteemed 
friend of the celebrities of his day. 

Of him Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote: "He excelled in music 
and poetry and had some knowledge in painting. These arts 
did not monopolize all the powers of his mind. He was well 
skilled in many practical and useful sciences, particularly 
mathematics and natural philosophy, and had a general ac- 
quaintance with anatomy, chemistry and natural history; but 
his forte was humor and satire, in both of which he was not 
surpassed by Lucian, Swift or Rabelais. Th-ese extraordinary 
powers were consecrated to the advancement of patriotism, 
virtue and science." 

In 1765 he enlarged his culture by a visit to England, and 
in 1768 married Miss Ann Borden, of Bordentown, New Jersey. 

He was an active contributor to the publications of the 
period in support of the claims of the colonies against British 
aggression. 

He was a poet of celebrity. His most famous poem, "The 
Battle of the Kegs," was one of the most popular of the Revo- 
lutionary poems, and a stinging satire upon the British. He was 
a member of the Continental Congress, was one of the framers 
of the articles of confederation, and for ten years a judge of 
the admiralty court ; and after the organization of the United 
States was a judge of the United States district court until 
his death. 

He was one of the most influential advocates for the rati- 
fication of the federal constitution. 

His sudden death from apoplexy in the fifty-third year 
of his age closed his useful life. 

Said Dr. Rush: "His person was a little below the common 
size. His features small, but extremely animated. His speech 
was quick, and all his motions seemed to partake of the un- 
ceasing activity and versatility of the powers of his mind. 

"It only remains to add to this account of Mr. Hopkinson, 



130 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

that the various causes which contributed to the establishment 
of the independence and federal government of the United 
States will not be fully traced unless much is ascribed to the 
irresistible influence of the ridicule which he poured forth, 
from time to time, upon the enemies of those great political 
events." 

He left, besides his widow, two sons and three daughters; 
one son, Joseph Hopkinson, became distinguished as an orator, 
at the bar and in congress. 

John Hart. 

John Hart was born in Hopewell, New Jersey, in 1708. He 
was a farmer and also a lawyer, and acquired the sobriquet of 
''Honest John Hart." He was for twenty years a member of 
the colonial legislature, and a member of the Continental Con- 
gress from 1774 to 1777. 

Notwithstanding the amiability of character that endeared 
him to his neighbors and gave him his name, he was the object 
of furious hatred by the British and hunted by them from place 
to place until the surrender of the Hessians at Trenton. 

He was a man of advanced years and quiet disposition; 
did not take an active part in the proceedings of the congress, 
and represented the industrious and well-to-do farmers of the 
colonies, who, with their more gifted fellows, staked their all 
for their country's freedom. He was a devoted member of the 
Baptist Church and gave to that which he attended at Hope- 
well the ground on which its church stood and for a cemetery 
adjoining. He was known as a sincere Christian and for his 
just and honest life. 

He died in 1780. 

Abraham Clark. 

Abraham Clark was born on a farm near Elizabethtown, 
New Jersey, February 15, 1726. 

He made a thorough study of the law, but never attempted 



SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 




1. JOHN HANCOCK, Massachusetts (i. lOHN ADAMS, Massachusetts 

2. lOSlAH BARTLETT, New Hampshire 7. ROBERT TREAT PAINE, Massachusetts 

3. William Whipple, New Hampshire S. ELBRIDOE CERRY, Massachusetts 

4. MATTHEW THORNTON, New Hampshire 9. STEPHEN HOPKINS, Rhode Island 

5. SAMUEL ADAMS, Massachusetts 10. WILLIAM ELLERY, Rhode Island 



SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 




1. ROGER SHERMAN, Connecticut 

2. SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, Connecticut 

3. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, Connecticut 

4. OLIVER WOLCOTT, Connecticut 

5. WILLIAM FLOYD, New York 

6. PHILIP LIVINGSTON, New York 



7. FRANCIS LEW IS, New York 
S. LEWIS MORKIS, New York 
9. RICHARD STOCKTON, New Jersey 
10. lOHN WITHERSPOON, New Jersey 
n. FRANCIS HOPKINSON, New Jersey 
12. JOHN HART, New Jersey 



SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 




1. ABRAHAM CLAKK, New Jer.sev 

2. ROBEKT MORRIS, Pennsvlvan'ia 

3. BEN 1 AMI N RUSH, Peiinsvlvania 

4. BKNIAMIN KRANKLIN, "Pennsvlvania 

5. JOHN MORTON, Pennsylvania 

6. GEORGE CLYMER, Fennsvlvania 



7. JAMES SMITH, Pennsvlvania 
,S. GEORGE TAYLOR, Pennsvlvania 
9. JAMES WILSON, Pennsvlvania 
1(1. (^.EoRGK R()>S. Pennsvlvania 
n. CAESAR RODNEY. Delaware 
12. GEORG.E READ, Delaware 



SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 




1. THOMAS McKEAN, Delaware 7. RICHARD HENRY LEE, Virginia 

2. SAMUEL CHASE, Maryland 8. THOMAS lEFFERSON, Virginia 

3. WILLIAM PACA, Maryland 9. BENJAMIN HARRISON, Virginia 

4. THOMAS STONE, Maryland 10. THOMAS NELSON, JR., Virginia 

5. CHARLES CARROLL,' of Carrollton, Md. 11. FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE, Virginia 

6. GEORGE WYTHE. Virginia 12. CARTER BRAXTON, Virginia 



SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 




1. WILLIAM HOOPER, North Carolina 6. THOMAS LYNCH, |R., South Carolina 

2. JOSEPH HEWES, North Carolina 7. ARTHUR MIDDLETON, South Carolina 

3. JOHN PENN, North Carolina 8. BUTTON GWINNETT, Georgia 

4. EDWARD KUTLEDGE, South Carolina 9. LYMAN HALL, Georgia 

5. THOS.HEYWARDJR., South Carolina 10. GEORGE WALTON, Georgia 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 131 

its practice, giving his advice free of charge until he became 
known as the ''poor man's counsellor." 

Under British rule he was sheriff of Essex county and 
clerk of the colonial assembly. 

His good judgment made his selection frequent throughout 
the state to arbitrate matters in and threatening litigation, 
and this universal regard sent him, in 1776, with New Jersey's 
notable delegation to the Continental Congress. He continued 
a member, excepting the session of 1779, imtil 1783, and again 
in 1788. 

"Mr. Clark applied himself zealously to the discharge of 
his new duties and was, for a long time, one of the leading 
members of the Jersey delegation. His industry, abilities and 
perseverance in the business of committees, and his plain, clear 
view of general measures rendered him a valuable member of 
the house, while his patriotism and integrity attracted the 
respect and admiration of his colleagues. 

"During this long period of service his necessary intimacy 
with the proceedings of congress and the course and nature of 
the arduous and protracted affairs, which frequently demanded 
a great extent of memory and attention, rendered him an 
active and useful member." 

During this time he was, also, a member of the state legis- 
lature and was the author of a measure known as "Clark's 
Law," to simplify the practice in New Jersey. 

"Mr. Clark possessed the reputation of being a rigid econo- 
mist in all things relating to the public treasure. Having, dur- 
ing the impoverished state of the country, strongly opposed a 
proposition of communication for pay made in behalf of the 
of&cers of the revolutionary army, they became his decided 
enemies and united their influence with the legal interest in 
opposing his popularity. In justification of the course which 
he had pursued he maintained that he, as well as many other 
civil officers, had cheerfully sacrificed a large share of property 
and domestic enjoyment for the public benefit, and that he con- 
sidered the officers of the army, in common with himself, his 



133 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

family, and all others, as fully compensated for years of suf- 
fering and privation by the result of the contest." 

He was a delegate to the Annapolis convention, one of the 
first and most constant advocates for a more stable and efficient 
national government and was elected a delegate to, but re- 
fused to attend, the constitutional convention. 

His opposition to the constitution as first submitted, and 
until the amendments thereto were adopted, with his stand on 
other matters, for a while kept him out of public station, but 
he was elected to the house of representatives in the second 
congress of the United States, and remained an active member 
of that house until near the close of his life. 

He was one of the most influential supporters of Madison's 
memorable resolutions in 1794 relative to American commerce, 
and took a distinguished part in the long and exciting debate 
that resulted over them. 

His own resolution to prohibit all intercourse with Great 
Britain until our citizens were compensated for injuries sus- 
tained by British armed vessels, and the western posts given up, 
passed the house and was defeated in the senate by the vote of 
Vice-President Adams, there being a tie in the vote of the 
senators. 

"Patriotism was the most distinguishing trait in the charac- 
ter of this plain and pious man. In private life he was reserved 
and contemplative ; preferring retirement to company, and 
reflection to amusement, he appeared to be continually ab- 
sorbed in the affairs of the public. Limited in his circum- 
stances, moderate in his desires, and unambitious of wealth, 
he was far from being parsimonious in his private concerns, 
although a rigid economist in public affairs. His person was 
of the common height, his form slender, and his eyebrows 
heavy, which gave an appearance of austerity to his coun- 
tenance. His habits were extremely temperate, and his manner 
thoughtful and sedate." 

He died of sunstroke, September 15, 1794, and his tomb 
at Rahway, where he died, bears this inscription : 



THE SIGNERS OF TITE DECLARATION" 133 

"Firm and decided as a patriot, 

Zealous and faithful as a friend to the public, 

He loved his country, 

And adhered to her cause 

In the darkest hours of her struggles 

against oppression. ' ' 

For Pennsylvania. 

Robert Morris. 

(See Framers of the Constitution, page 351.) 

Benjamin Rush. 

Every calling, creed and civilization contributed to the 
achievement of our independence. As the fires of Corinth 
melted the various metals wrought into her buildings and 
fused them into the new and hitherto unknown metal called 
Corinthian brass, so the fires of American patriotism fused into 
a new and distinct American character the liberty-loving 
people of every clime and tongue. 

The great-grandfather of Benjamin Rush served creditably 
as captain of cavalry under Cromwell, and when the monarchy 
was restored came to Pennsylvania about the time William 
Penn started its settlement. 

He was born at Philadelphia, December 29, 1745. His 
father's death, when he was six years old, left him and a 
younger brother to his mother's care. This revolutionary 
mother displayed what history so often tells of woman's 
worthy work. She removed from her little farm to Phila- 
delphia, and went into a small commercial business to educate 
and prepare her sons for useful life. She, herself, taught them 
the rudiments of English, and when Benjamin was nine years 
of age sent him to the school at Nottingham, Maryland, con- 
ducted by his uncle, the celebrated Dr. Findley, afterwards 
president of the college at Princeton. The moral as well as 
mental instruction of this great man made a lasting impression 
on his, to-be, distinguished pupil. 

At the age of sixteen he graduated at Princeton, and was 



134 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

induced by Dr. Findley to study medicine under the eminent 
Dr. Redman of Philadelphia. During the six years he spent 
with Dr. Redman he said he missed only two days from con- 
stant duty. As has been said so often, genius is only another 
name for hard work ; for constant, steady application. 

After attending a course of lectures by Dr. Shippen, the 
first course of medical lectures delivered in the colonies, he 
spent two years at Edinburgh, Scotland, the medical school 
there being the most celebrated in Europe. "While there he 
formed an intimate friendship with Dr. Witherspoon that was 
cherished by both for a lifetime, and joined in the efforts of 
Richard Stockton to induce that co-signer of the Declaration 
to come to America and accept the presidency of the college at 
Princeton. 

The winter of 1768 he spent in attending the hospitals and 
medical lectures in London, and followed this with a year's 
similar experience in Paris, when he returned home. The edu- 
cational value of this, as of all travel by an observing person, 
was incalculable. It refined his native gifts and made him a 
gentleman of rarest polish. 

His genial nature and affable and polished address soon 
made him a social favorite. The sunshine that he carried into 
the sick-room so cheered his patients that the influence of mind 
over body, of the elevation of spirits, aided his treatment and 
made all the more efiicacious what was administered. There 
is much in inspiring the faith, stimulating the courage and 
allaying fear, as well as in drugs, in medical treatment. 

The yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793 was one 
of the most malignant and horrible scourges that ever af- 
flicted it, and gave him conspicuous reputation. The entire 
business of the city was abandoned, and at one time there were 
only three physicians to attend over six thousand sufferers. 
His labors were incessant, regardless of personal risk or com- 
pensation. His labors rose to the height of the loftiest 
humanity. His health broke down, and he was entreated to 
leave to save his own life. He replied, '^That he would not 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION I35 

abandon the post which Providence had assigned him ; that he 
thought it his duty, not only to sacrifice pleasures and repose, 
but life, if necessary, for the safety of his patients." 

For his course in that epidemic and his writings upon the 
treatment of yellow fever, the celebrated Dr. Zimmerman, of 
France, said: "He conducted himself with such distinguished 
merit that, not only the city of Philadelphia, but all humanity, 
should join in building a monument to him." 

For these, in 1805, the King of Prussia and Queen of 
Etruria each gave him a gold medal, and the Emperor of 
Russia a diamond ring, while innumerable distinguished so- 
cieties made him an honorary member. 

Yet he met with the reward so often paid achievement. In 
private circles and public print he was denounced with all the 
scurrilous venom that malice and jealousy could invent, stig- 
matized as a murderer, threatened with prosecution and ex- 
pulsion from the city, until, at last, he was compelled to appeal 
to the law for protection. 

His treatment of other diseases, especially of the lungs, 
was equally efficacious and progressive. 

These achievements brought him into demand as an in- 
structor. From a small class the attendance grew until, in 
1812, more than four hundred and fifty pupils attended at one 
time, and more than two thousand who attended his lectures 
spread over his own and other countries to extend his teach- 
ings and his fame. 

In 1769 he was chosen professor of chemistry in the College 
of Philadelphia ; in 1789, to the chair of the theory and prac- 
tice of medicine ; in 1791, when this became the University of 
Pennsylvania, professor of the institutes of medicine and clini- 
cal practice, and, in 1786, of the practice of physics. 

His lectures were not only the wise instruction of trained 
culture and practical experience, but so happily delivered and 
couched in such felicitous phrase that he charmed as well as 
instructed his hearers. 

He founded the first dispensary in the United States and 



136 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

was one of the founders and president of the Philadelphia 
Medical Society. 

His profession has perpetuated his memory in the celebrated 
Rush Medical College, of Chicago, Illinois, and in other medi- 
cal colleges of similar name- in many of our cities. 

Nor in medicine alone did he win distinction. He was the 
principal agent in founding Dickinson College ; founder and 
vice-president of the Philadelphia Bible Society ; vice-president 
of the American Philosophical Society, of the Society for the 
Abolition of Slavery, and a member of many such organizations 
in America and Europe. 

His published writings comprise seven volumes, one of which 
is a collection of essays on philosophy, morals and literature. 
Said Dr. Ramsey: "It is a matter of wonder how a physician 
who had so many patients to attend, a professor with so many 
pupils to instruct, could find leisure to write so much, and at 
the same time so well." His life well points the epigram: 
"When you wish something done, and well done, go to a busy 
man to do it." 

Ail intimate and esteemed friend of most of the revolu- 
tionary leaders, and his sympathies enlisted to the utmost in 
the claims of colonial rights, he became an influential writer 
for and molder of public opinion in behalf of the assertion of 
American rights. 

He was elected to the Continental Congress in July, after 
the Declaration of Independence was adopted, but under a 
rule of the congress was permitted to sign it. 

In 1777 he was appointed physician general of the military 
hospitals. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention 
to consider the ratification of the constitution of the United 
States, wherein he gave the best of his efforts and influence in 
favor thereof; and for fourteen years was president of the 
government mint at Philadelphia. 

He was an influential advocate for the establishment of free 
schools throughout the country, for the abolition of capita] 
punishment, and did much to secure its repeal in Pennsylvania 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 137 

for all crimes except murder in the first degree ; for moral, 
as the basis of all mental instruction, as a necessity for repub- 
lican institutions, dependent as much, if not more, upon public 
virtue than any other attribute or acquisition of man ; and for 
temperance and abstention from the use of all narcotics and 
stimulants, whose enervating effects he portrayed with graphic 
force. 

He was as noted for his sincere and unostentatious piety, 
for his faithful observance of religious duties and Christian 
obligations, as for his great and varied learning and tireless 
industry. The church had no more devoted or constant wor- 
shiper. 

He was tall, slender but well porportioned, had an uncom- 
monly large and prominent forehead, Roman nose, blue eyes, 
expressive mouth and features. 

After a brief illness he died of typhus, or spotted fever, 
then epidemic in Philadelphia, on April 19, 1813. 

Benjamin Franklin. 

(See Framers of the Constitution, page 326.) 

John Morton. 

The ancestors of John Morton were among the first Swedish 
settlers who located on the Delaware river, and spelled their 
name Morten. 

He was born in 1724, near Ridley, in the county of Chester, 
then part of Pennsylvania, now Delaware. 

He spent only three months in school but was tenderly 
cared for and instructed by his step-father, John Sketchley, 
and followed the occupations of farmer and surveyor. 

In 1764 he was appointed a justice of the peace and soon 
after elected to the general assembly of Pennsylvania, of which, 
for a number of years, he was a member and speaker. 

With John Dickinson and George Bryan he was sent as a 
delegate from Pennsylvania to the Stamp Act Congress in 
1765 and, on his return, elected sheriff of the county. 

His self-education had undoubtedly been superior, for he 
was chosen president-judge of the court of quarter sessions 



138 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

and common pleas and appointed one of the judges of the 
supreme court of Pennsylvania. 

In July, 1774, he was chosen a delegate from Pennsylvania 
to the Continental Congress, again in 1775, while speaker of 
the Pennsylvania Assembly, and again in 1776. 

Pennsylvania had voted against making the declaration of 
independence and the vote of her five delegates stood two for 
and two against it. His vote decided the vote of his state, and 
so decided the vote in favor of that immortal measure. This 
act alienated many of his friends. On his death bed he told 
his family that his vote for independence would prove to be 
the most illustrious act of his life. So it proved to be. 

He was chairman of the committee of the whole in organiz- 
ing the confederation under the articles agreed to in congress 
in 1777. 

By sheer force of industrious application this unschooled 
plowboy rose from the furrow to a seat in the highest court 
of his state, to the presiding office in its assembly, to member- 
ship in the great congress of his country, where, by his vote 
was decided the most momentous question in American his- 
tory. 

The alienation of his friends on account of this heroic act 
of courageous patriotism preyed upon his sensitive nature and 
was believed to have hastened his death, which occurred at 
his birthplace in April, 1777. 

All honor to his memory ! 

George Clymer. 

(See Framers of the Constitution, page 319.) 

James Smith. 

James Smith was the most peculiar character of all the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

He was born in Ireland, in 1720, according to some author- 
ity, in 1713, to others. His exact date. of birth he would never 
tell. 

His father brought the family to Pennsylvania about 1730, 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION I39 

acquired a considerable estate and educated this son at the 
College of Philadelphia. 

He studied law and as soon as admitted to the bar removed 
to the western part of the state, where he acquired extensive 
landed interests, and finally settled at York, where for many 
years he was the only lawyer. 

He was famous for his wit and humor, his droll anecdotes 
and his contempt for the pedantic. 

At the beginning of the revolution he was well advanced 
in years, possessed of considerable property, and largely in- 
terested in the manufacture of iron, as well as a lawyer of ex- 
tensive practice. 

Being sent as a delegate from York to the provincial con- 
vention to consider the state of affairs in 1774, and composed 
of the best talent of the province, he differed from the too 
pacific tone of Dickinson and other leaders, returned home to 
raise and become captain of the first volunteer troops raised 
in Pennsylvania to resist the soldiers of Great Britain, and 
when they increased to a regiment was elected their colonel. 

At the next state convention in January, 1775, he warmly 
supported the resolution: 

"If the British administration should determine by force 
to effect a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the British 
parliament, in such a situation we hold it our indispensable 
duty to resist such force, and at every hazard to defend the 
rights and liberties of America." 

He was far in advance of his associates in advocating inde- 
pendence. When that convention in November 1775 passed 
the resolution instructing the state's delegates in congress to 
oppose "separation from our mother country, or a change of 
this form of government," his active opposition to it brought 
him into special prominence. 

He was one of the leaders in the convention of June, 1776, 
in which Dr. Benjamin Rush proposed and he seconded the 
resolution instructing Pennsylvania's delegation in the con- 
gress to vote for independence, and on the same day was ap- 



140 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

pointed with Dr. Kush and Colonel Bayard to raise a corps of 
military for the protection of Philadelphia. 

On July 20, 1776, he was elected to congress, but retained 
his seat in the state convention until the following August, 
when he entered congress and signed the declaration. 

These colony or state instructions, binding their delegates 
and varying in tenor, did much throughout the whole war to 
hinder not oiily the Declaration of Independence, but many 
important and needful measures. 

In March, 1777, he declined a reelection to congress, but 
the grave turn in affairs induced him to accept it in December 
of that year. He continued a member until the last of the 
year 1778, when he permanently retired from political life. 

He was a man of deep religious conviction and would never 
tolerate a jest upon sacred subjects in his presence. 

His love for and veneration of "Washington was a marked 
characteristic. "With all the fierce and fearless courage of his 
race he instantly resented any insinuation against the goodness 
or greatness of the "first American." 

For over sixty years he was in active practice as a lawyer, 
and died at York, Pennsylvania, the oldest and longest in 
service of the Pennsylvania bar, July 11, 1806. 

George Taylor. 

George Taylor was born in Ireland in 1716, the son of a 
clergyman, who gave him an excellent education and was pre- 
paring him for the practice of medicine, when he suddenly 
emigrated to Pennsylvania. He had left home penniless, and 
when he reached America bound himself for a term of years 
to a man by the name of Savage, in order to pay the expenses 
of his passage from Ireland, and was known as a "redemp- 
tioner." In him, therefore, the humblest labor of the country 
had its representative among the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. 

His employer put him to work shoveling coal into the fur- 
naces. His blistered hands showed that he was unaccustomed 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 141 

to such hard labor. This attracted the sympathy of the master 
and his intelligence that master's regard, who promoted him 
to a clerkship. His ability soon made him one of the most im- 
portant of the employees. 

Upon the death of Mr. Savage, Taylor married his widow, 
and amassed a large fortune in the manufacture of iron. He 
was a member of the Pennsylvania assembly from 1764 to 1770, 
and judge of the Northumberland county court. In the legis- 
lature and in the Continental Congress, to which he was sent 
in 1776, he was known as one of the quiet but industrious mem- 
bers who could be counted upon for diligent committee work. 
He was not in the congress when the vote was taken upon 
declaring independence, but entered the congress in company 
with George Ross, George Clymer, James Smith and Dr. Benja- 
min Eush, and signed it after it was engrossed. 

He died at Easton, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1781. 

James Wilson. 

(See Framers of the Constitution, Page 360.) 
George Ross. 

George Ross, son of an Episcopal minister, was born at 
Newcastle, Delaware, in 1730; was the product of his father's 
home education, became a lawyer and located at Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania, then a frontier town, where he was appointed 
prosecutor for the king. 

He entered the Pennsylvania assembly in 1768 and con- 
tinued a member until 1774, when he was sent to the Continen- 
tal Congress, in which he was a member until ill health forced 
his resignation in 1777. 

On his return home he declined the presentation of a mag- 
nificent set of plate tendered by his constituents for his services 
in the assembly and Continental Congress, on the ground that 
his services were over-rated by his fellow citizens; that in 
bestowing them he had been impelled solely by his sense of 
duty, and that every man should contribute all his energy to 
promote at such a period the public welfare, without expecting 
pecuniary rewards. 



143 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

His special service was in the Pennsylvania assembly, Grov- 
ernor Penn and many of the members opposing independence, 
Ross, among other leading members, advocating it. His serv- 
ices on various committees to raise and equip troops, and pre- 
pare the many legislative measures to enable his state to do its 
part in the struggle, were as important as those rendered by 
many in the national congress. 

In 1779 he was appointed a judge of the Pennsylvania court 
of admiralty, but lived to discharge his duties as such for but 
a few months, dying at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in July, 1779. 

Says a distinguished contemporary: "In his domestic habits 
he was kind, generous and much beloved; in his professional 
career zealous and honorable ; as a politician always active 
and honorable; an honest man and an upright judge." 

For Delaware. 
Caesar Rodney. 

Caesar Rodney, born at Dover, Delaware, October 2, 1728, 
was the descendant of the De Rodeney family, one of the old 
and historical members of the British nobility. 

He inherited a considerable fortune, commenced his official 
life as sheriff and then was elected judge of all the lower 
courts of Kent county. 

He was a member of the Delaware assembly in 1762, as- 
sociated with Thomas M'Kean on its most important commit- 
tee, that of correspondence ; one of Delaware 's representatives 
in the Stamp Act Congress, and with M'Kean and George 
Read prepared the address to the king on the repeal of the 
stamp act. 

In the Delaware assemblies from 1766 to 1768 he vigorously 
supported the bill, that was defeated, to prohibit the importa- 
tion of slaves into the state. 

In the growing contest between the American people and 
parliament he was chosen by the assembly to prepare the ad- 
dress to the king, which closed as follows: 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 143 

"The sense of our deplorable condition will, we hope, plead 
with your majesty in our behalf for the freedom we take in 
dutifully remonstrating against the proceedings of a British 
parliament, confessedly the wisest and greatest assembly upon 
earth. But if our fellow-subjects of Great Britain, who derive 
no authority from us, who cannot in our humble opinion repre- 
sent us, and to whom we will not yield in loyalty and affection 
to your majesty, can, at their will and pleasure, of right give 
and grant away our property ; if they can enforce an implicit 
obedience to every order or act of theirs for that purpose, 
and deprive all or any of the assemblies on this continent of 
the power of legislation, for differing with them in opinion in 
matters which intimately affect their rights and interests, and 
every thing that is dear and valuable to Englishmen, we can- 
not imagine a case more miserable; we cannot think that we 
shall have even the shadow of liberty left. "We conceive it to 
be an inherent right in your majesty's subjects, derived to 
them from God and nature, handed down from their ancestors, 
and confirmed by your royal predecessors and the constitution, 
in person or by their representatives, to give and grant to 
their sovereign those things which their own labors and their 
own cares have acquired and saved, and in such proportions, 
and at such times, as the national honor and interest may re- 
quire. Your majesty's faithful subjects of this government 
have enjoyed this inestimable privilege uninterrupted from its 
first existence till of late. They have at all times cheerfully 
contributed, to the utmost of their abilities, for your majesty's 
service, as often as your royal requisitions were made known ; 
and they cannot now, but with the greatest uneasiness and dis- 
tress of mind, part with the power of demonstrating their 
loyalty and affection to their beloved king." 

This feeling and humble address is but one of similar tenor 
sent the king from each and all of the colonies. They show, 
beyond all cavil or question, how reluctant the colonies were 
to sever their relations with Great Britain; how they strove 
to avoid the last dread step of throwing off the galling yoke 



144 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

by setting up an independent government of their own. 
Strange, strange indeed, that such loyal appeals should have 
met with deaf ears; that the eyes of the British ruler should 
have been so blinded ; his hearty his judgment so at fault. 

In 1769 he was elected speaker of the Delaware Assembly. 
This position he held for several years. He was also made 
chairman of the committee on correspondence with the other 
colonies, whereby he made the intimate acquaintance of the 
leading men of all the colonies. 

In 1774 he was sent to the Continental Congress, and while 
there appointed brigadier general of the Delaware troops. 

While away from congress in 1776, engaged in the most 
important mission of arousing the people of his state to pre- 
pare for the crisis he saw was coming, he received an urgent 
call from Thomas M'Kean to return to his seat in the congress, 
as every vote was needed to secure the adoption of the resolu- 
tion to declare independence. He left posthaste, arriving just 
in time to east his decisive vote in favor of it, making, as he 
wrote, 'Hhe important day which restores to every American 
his birthright, a day which every freeman will record with 
gratitude, and the millions of posterity read of with rapture. ' ' 

There were many in Delaware who opposed independence, 
and this heroic act cost him and Thomas M'Kean their seats 
in the next congress. 

He then turned his entire attention to raising and equip- 
ping the Delaware troops. His efficient efforts brought this 
letter from Washington in February, 1777 : 

"The readiness with which you took the field at the period 
most critical to our affairs, the industry you used in bringing 
out the militia of the Delaware state, and the alertness ob- 
served by you in forwarding on the troops from Trenton, re- 
flect the highest honor on your character and place your 
attachment to the cause in the most distinguished point of 
view. They claim my sineerest thanks, and I am happy in this 
opportunity of giving them to you." 

Just at this time he was elected to, but declined, the posi- 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION 145 

tion of judge of the supreme court of Delaware, in order to 
serve his country as a soldier, and became one of the most 
trusted of Washington's aids. 

In 1778 the patriots of Delaware gained the ascendancy and 
again sent him to congress, but he remained in the state as- 
sembly to secure needed legislation by it, when he was elected 
president of the state. This important office he held for four 
years, rendering a helpful service beyond what he could have 
done in congress or the military field. 

''By his firm and liberal conduct he secured the universal 
esteem of every portion of the people, and by the decided tone 
of his measures he increased the strength and augmented the 
resources of the general government. At length, however, 
fatigued with the arduousness of his duties, he determined to 
retire from office, and in the year 1782 declined a reelection. 
His constituents, however, would not permit him to retire from 
public life, for he was immediately chosen a delegate to con- 
gress, as he also was in the succeeding year." 

His impersonal hostility to the country's foes and his 
humanity was shown by his conduct while governor in this 
incident : 

The indiscreet activity of a leading Tory so infuriated the 
community that a mob was organized to lynch him. Rodney 
heard of it and had him brought to his own house. The mob 
assembled before the house and demanded the Tory. Rodney 
calmly appeared before them, told them, as the Tory had sur- 
rendered to him, he would see that justice was done in a legal 
way, but would protect him until that was done. The mob 
took the governor's word and dispersed. 

He was so grievously afflicted with cancer of the face that 
for many years he had to conceal the disfiguration by wearing 
a green cloth. Despite his affliction he was noted for his good 
humor and vivacity and exceeding fondness of a joke. 

The delegates from Virginia were prone to plume them- 
selves on the greatness of their, then, most populous state. 
These eulogies their associates sarcastically designated as 



146 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

dominionism. On one occasion, when Virginia was about to be 
invaded, Benjamin Harrison, stout of frame and of athletic 
build, was imploring that hurried aid be sent, and pictured 
the "Old Dominion" as destitute of every means for defence. 
The congress was amazed at this statement from a Virginia 
delegate. Rodney, pale and emaciated to skeleton thinness, 
rose in his peculiar way, began with a crocodile sympathy to 
deplore the melancholy and prostrate condition of his neigh- 
boring, extensive and heretofore "powerful" state of Vir- 
ginia. "But," said he, in a voice elevated an octave higher than 
concert pitch, "let her be of good cheer; she has a friend in 
need; Delaware will take her under its protection and insure 
her safety." Harrison was astounded, but joined (for he 
relished a good hit, for or against him) in the laugh; and the 
subject lay over to another day. 

The fatal cancer was then fast consuming his life. Yet 
his iron will sustained him until he saw independence realized, 
his country triumphant. 

Universally beloved and mourned, he died at Dover Dela- 
ware, June 29, 1784. 

George Read. 

(See Framers of the Constitution, page 389.) 

For Delaioare. 
Thomas M'Kean. 

Thomas M'Kean, son of an Irish emigrant, was born near 
New London, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1734, and was educated 
at the celebrated school of Dr. Allison at New London. 

He supplemented a course of study in a law office by two 
years as deputy to the prothonotary of the court of common 
pleas, where he acquired a practical knowledge of legal pro- 
cedure that enabled him to rapidly advance in his profession. 

In 1756 the attorney general of Pennsylvania surprised him 
with the appointment as king's attorney for Sussex county, 
Delaware, and in 1757 he was elected clerk of the Pennsyl- 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLAEATION 147 

vania assembly, his first intimation of the honor being a notice 
from Benjamin Chew, the speaker, of his election. 

In 1762 he was selected with Caesar Rodney, by the legis- 
lature, to revise the laws of the state of Delaware, and in the 
same year elected to the assembly, to which he was reelected 
for seventeen successive years, though repeatedly endeavoring 
to escape a reelection. 

Having achieved the reputation of being one of the most 
famous lawyers and legislators of his state, he, with Caesar 
Rodney, was sent as a delegate from Delaware to the Stamp 
Act Congress in 1765, where, with Thomas Lynch and James 
Otis, he framed the address of the colonies to the British par- 
liament. 

His denunciation of Timothy Ruggles, the Tory president 
of this congress, for refusing to sign this address, on the 
ground that it was against his conscience, was so bitter that it 
provoked a challenge to a duel, but the members of the con- 
gress prevented it. 

On their return he and Rodney received the unanimous vote 
of thanks of the Delaware assembly, and he was elected a judge 
of the court of common pleas and quarter sessions. In Novem- 
ber, 1765, he was a member of this court that ordered all its 
officers to use unstamped paper in their duties, the first court 
of the colonies to make such order. 

In 1771 he was appointed by the king's commissioners col- 
lector of the port of New Castle ; in 1772 was elected speaker 
of the house of representatives. 

His active opposition to British aggression had already 
made him a conspicuous character when he was elected to the 
first Continental Congress, and, it is claimed, he was the only 
man whose service continued unbroken in congress from the 
first until peace was declared in 1783. 

Another remarkable circumstance was that, while he repre- 
sented the state of Delaware in and was at one time president 
of the congress, from 1777 he held the office and discharged 
the duties of chief justice of Pennsylvania. His is the only 



148 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMERS 

instance in our history where two states at the same time 
kept the same man in highest public station. 

His eminent abilities as jurist and legislator caused his ap- 
pointment upon many important committees, notably that to 
prepare the Articles of Confederation. 

He was one of the most zealous advocates for the Declara- 
tion of Independence. His name did not appear in the jour- 
nals of the congress, which he explains in this letter of his- 
toric value : 

"Philadelphia, September 26th, 1796. 

"Sir: Your favor of the nineteenth instant, respecting the 
Declaration of Independence, should not have remained so 
long unanswered if the duties of my office of chief justice had 
not engrossed my whole attention while the court was sitting. 

"For several years past I have been taught to think less 
unfavorably of scepticism than formerly. So many things 
have been misrepresented, misstated, and erroneously printed 
(with seeming authenticity) under my own eye, as in my 
opinion to render those who doubt of every thing not alto- 
gether inexcusable. The publication of the Declaration of 
Independence on the fourth of July, 1776, as printed in 
the Journals of Congress (vol. ii, p. 241) and also in the acts 
of most public bodies since, so far as respects the names of the 
delegates or deputies who made that declaration, has led to 
the above reflection. By the printed publications referred to, 
it would appear as if the fifty-five gentlemen, whose names 
are there printed, and none other, were on that day personally 
present in congress and assenting to the declaration ; whereas, 
the truth is otherwise. The following gentlemen were not 
members of congress on the fourth of July, 1776, namely: 
Matthew Thornton, Benjamin Rush, George Clymer, James 
Smith, George Taylor and George Ross. The five last named 
were not chosen delegates until the twentieth day of thai 
month; the first not until the twelfth day of September fol- 
lowing, nor did he take his seat in congress until the fourth 
of November, which was four months after. The Journals of 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 149 

Congress (vol. ii, p. 277 and 442) as well as those of the as- 
sembly of the state of Pennsylvania (p. 53) and of the general 
assembly of New Hampshire, establish these facts. Although 
the six gentlemen named had been very active in the American 
cause, and some of them, to my own knowledge, warmly in 
favor of independence, previous to the day on which it was 
declared, yet I personally know that none of them were in 
congress on that day. 

"Modesty should not rob any man of his just honor, when 
by that honor his modesty cannot be offended. My name is 
not in the printed Journals of Congress, as a party to the 
Declaration of Independence, and this, like an error in the first 
concoction, has vitiated most of the subsequent publications, 
and yet the fact is that I was then a member of congress for 
the state of Delaware, was personally present in congress, and 
voted in favor of independence on the fourth of July, 1776, and 
signed the declaration after it had been engrossed on parch- 
ment, where my name, in my own handwriting, still appears. 
Henry Wisner, of the state of New York, was also in congress, 
and voted for independence. 

"I do not know how the misstatement in the printed jour- 
nal has happened. The manuscript public journal has no 
names annexed to the Declaration of Independence, nor has 
the secret journal; but it appears by the latter that on the 
nineteenth day of July, 1776, the congress directed that it 
should be engrossed on parchment, and signed by every mem- 
ber, and that it was so produced on the second of August, 
and signed. This is interlined in the secret journal, in the 
handwriting of Charles Thompson, esquire, the secretary. The 
present secretary of state of the United States and myself 
have lately inspected the journals and seen this. The journal 
was first printed by Mr. John Dunlap, in 1778, and probably 
copies, with the names then signed to it, were printed in 
August, 1776, and that Mr. Dunlap printed the names from 
one of them. 

"I have now, sir, given you a true, though brief, history of 



150 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

this affair ; and, as you are engaged in publishing a new edition 
of the Laws of Pennsylvania, I am obliged to you for afford- 
ing the favorable opportunity of conveying to you this in- 
formation, authorizing you to make any use of it you please. 
"I am, sir, with particular esteem, 

"Your most obedient servant, 

"THOMAS M'KEAN. 
"Alexander James Dallas, Esq., 

"Secretary of State for Pennsylvania." 

Immediately after the vote in favor of declaring inde- 
pendence, M'Kean, with a Philadelphia regiment, of which he 
was Colonel, joined the army under Washington in New 
Jersey, and was in active service for several months. 

During the year 1777 he filled the dual offices of president 
of the state of Delaware and chief justice of Pennsylvania. 
The latter exalted station he continued to hold for twenty-two 
years. 

During his long congressional service, he never received in 
any year sufficient salary to cover his expenses of the year, and 
during the years 1779 and 1780 was not offered and did not 
receive a cent. This at a time, too, when his eminent ability 
and wide-spread fame would easily have secured the most lu- 
crative law practice in the country. 

He vainly besought the legislature of Delaware to elect 
some other in his stead to congress, but over his repeated re- 
quests was again and again elected. 

Yet his high positions, though unsought and actually forced 
upon him, were not held free from the shafts always hurled 
at those who do things. The jealous envy that dawdles and 
dreams is always active in carping criticism of achievement. 
Its energy never uplifts self or fellow, but is exhaustless in 
effort to drag down and destroy. 

The press was filled with denunciation of his holding dual 
positions and from different states. 

In holding high official station in two states, his position 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 151 

was unique, but many eminent men held two or more official 
seats at the same time in the same state. One of the most 
notable of these was Roger Sherman, of Connecticut. At the 
same time the following statesmen served in congress and as 
chief justice in their states, William Henry Drayton, in South 
Carolina ; William Paca, in Maryland ; John Jay, in New York, 
and Samuel Huntington, while president of the Continental 
Congress, was a judge of the supreme court of Connecticut, 
while many other members of congress held judicial or legis- 
lative offices at the same time in their respective states. 

As chief justice his decisions at times clashed with public 
sentiment, and showed his courage as well as impartial fair- 
ness, superior to praise or clamor. 

When the British took Philadelphia two Americans, Roberts 
and Carlisle, entered the royal service. They were captured, 
tried in 1778 for treason, convicted and executed. His ruling 
in their case meant certain death if the revolution failed, or 
he should be taken by the enemy. 

On the other hand, his decision in 1781 in favor of Samuel 
Chapman, who was attainted for treason (1 Dallas, 53), and 
in allowing the writs of habeas corpus in favor of some twenty 
persons confined on treasonable charges were in direct con- 
flict with the feelings of his own infuriated people, and his 
own state executive authority. 

His upholding the civil against the military authority was 
one of the most notable that ever occurred in our history. 

He had issued a warrant for libel against Colonel Robert L. 
Hooper, who applied to the famous General Nathaniel Greene 
to know if he should respect it. General Greene wrote to 
Judge M 'Kean that he could not, without great necessity, con- 
sent to Colonel Hooper's absence in obedience to the warrant. 
From the judge, who was as devoted patriot as Greene, as well 
as one of the warmest admirers of that great soldier, came the 
following stinging reply: 



152 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

''Yorktown, June 9, 1778. 

''Sir: I have just now received your favor of the third 
instant, and am not a little surprised that the sheriff of 
Northampton county should have permitted Colonel Robert L. 
Hooper, after he was arrested by virtue of my precept, to wait 
upon you, until he had appeared before me. 

"You say, sir, 'Colonel Hooper waited upon me to communi- 
cate his situation, and to know if the circumstances of the army 
would admit of his absence ; but, as the army is just upon the 
wing, and part of it will, in all probability, march through his 
district, I could not, without great necessity, consent to his 
being absent, as there is no other person that can give the 
necessary aid upon this occasion.' 

"I do not think, sir, that the absence, sickness, or even 
death, of Mr, Hooper, could be attended with such a conse- 
quence that no other person could be found who could give- 
the necessary aid upon this occasion; but, what attracts my 
attention the most, is your observation that you cannot, with- 
out great necessity, consent to his being absent. As to that, 
sir, I shall not ask your consent, nor that of any other per- 
son, in or out of the army, whether my precept shall be obeyed 
or not, in Pennsylvania. 

"The warrant for the arrest of Mr. Hooper being special, 
no other magistrate can take cognizance thereof but myself. 
The mode you propose, of giving bail, cannot be adopted, for 
many reasons. 

"I should be very sorry to find that the execution of 
criminal law should impede the operations of the army, in any 
instance; but much more so, to find the latter impede the for- 
mer. 

"I am, sir, with great respect, 

"Your most obedient humble servant, 

"THOMAS M'KEAN. 

"Major-General Greene." 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 153 

By his eminent biographer this was said of his judicial 
career : 

"Mr, M'Kean industriously devoted himself to the dis- 
charge of the duties of chief justice until the year 1799, when 
he was elected governor of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
In all the qualifications of the judge, it may, without hesita- 
tion be said that he had few equals in this, or any other 
country. The dignity which the supreme court of Pennsyl- 
vania preserved, and the reverence which it inspired, while 
he presided over it, and his judicial opinions, at a period when 
the law of the state was unsettled, and when a master mind 
was requisite to reduce it to a system, have established for 
him the reputation of being one of the ablest lawyers of his 
country. His memory is, to the present day, held in profound 
respect and veneration in the courts of justice, and successive 
judges have, by their unvarying testimony, given unfading 
lustre to his judicial fame. 'Chief Justice M'Kean,' observes 
a late judge of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, 'was a 
great man ; his merit in the profession of the law, and as a 
judge, has never been sufficiently appreciated. It is only since 
I have been upon the bench that I have been able to conceive 
a just idea of the greatness of his merit. His legal learning 
was profound and accurate. 

"The lucidity of his explication, and the perspicuity of his 
language, which is the first excellence in the communication of 
ideas, was perfect; but I never saw equalled his dignity of 
manner in delivering a charge to a jury, or on a law argument, 
to the bar. But what is still more, his comprehension of mind 
in taking notes, so as to embrace the substance, and yet omit 
nothing material, has appeared to me inimitable.' " 

While not a member of the Constitutional Convention, his 
work and influence in favor of its adoption was as important 
and salutary as if he had been. 

He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention called to 
ratify or reject it. With James Wilson, he led the members 



154 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

who favored its adoption, closing his masterly argument with 
this simple, yet clear and forceful summary: 

"I. If you do it, you strengthen the government and 
people of these United States, and will thereby have the 
wisdom and assistance of all the states. 

"II. You will settle, establish and firmly perpetuate our 
independence, by destroying the vain hopes of all its enemies, 
both at home and abroad. 

III. You will encourage your allies to join with you; nay, 
to depend, that what had been stipulated or shall hereafter be 
stipulated and agreed upon, will be punctually performed ; and 
other nations will be induced to enter into treaties with you. 

''IV. It will have a tendency to break our parties and 
divisions, and by that means, lay a firm and solid foundation 
for the future tranquillity and happiness of the United States 
in general, and of this state in particular. 

"V. It will invigorate your commerce, and encourage ship 
building. 

"VI. It will have a tendency, not only to prevent any 
other nation from making war upon you, but from offering you 
any wrong, or even insult. 

"In short, the advantages that must result from it are 
obviously so numerous and important, and have been so fully 
and ably pointed out by others, that it appears to be un- 
necessary to enlarge on this head. 

"The law, sir, has been my study from infancy, and my 
only profession. I have gone through the circle of office, in the 
legislative, executive and judicial departments of govern- 
ment; and from all my study, observation and experience, I 
must declare that from a full examination and due considera- 
tion of this system it appears to me the best the world has yet 
seen. 

"I congratulate you on the fair prospect of its being 
adopted, and am happy in the expectation of seeing ac- 
complished what has been long my ardent wish — that you will 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION I55 

hereafter have a salutary permanency in magistracy, and 
stability in the laws. ' ' 

In 1789 he was elected to the convention to revise the Con- 
stitution of Pennsylvania, and was made chairman, when that 
body resolved itself into a committee of the whole to pre- 
pare that important document. This kept him much from the 
floor, but his advocacy of two houses, instead of the one there- 
tofore known ; the independence and distinct demarcations of 
the powers of the executive, legislative and judicial depart- 
ments met with success. 

The provision therein, "for the establishment of schools 
throughout the state, in such manner that the poor may be 
taught gratis," was made on his proposition. 

He was progressive, yet prudently conservative, and one 
of his utterances in this day of so much legislation may well 
be recalled : 

"I dislike innovations, especially in the administration of 
justice, and I would avoid tampering with constitutions of 
government as with edge-tools." 

On his retirement from the chair it was resolved by unani- 
mous vote, "that the thanks of the committee be given to the 
honorable Mr. M'Kean, for his able and impartial conduct, 
while chairman thereof." 

On his election to the governorship the people of Philadel- 
phia presented him with an address concluding with this 
testimony of his w^orth : 

"In an integrity, which has stood the test of half a century, 
and in a firmness that neither cabal nor faction has been able 
to shake, and in principles which stood unmoved amid the trials 
and perils of a revolution, we cannot but rely with confidence. 
On you, sir, not only the eyes of republican Pennsylvania, but 
the eyes of the republicans throughout the union, are fixed; 
on you, a momentous trust has devolved, which engages all 
their attention and affections, and it is with pride, with honest 
pride, we avow our confidence, that the chief magistrate of 



156 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Pennsylvania will exhibit to the United States an illustrious 
example." 

During his term as governor party spirit ran high, and he 
was partisan in his removals from office. An effort was made 
to impeach him, but failed. 

He was earnestly solicited to become a candidate for vice 
president in 1804, but declined the use of his name. 

Having served as governor for nine years he retired from 
public life in 1808, his only part thereafter being in 1814, when 
a public meeting was called to express the public sentiment 
over our second war with Great Britain, and, as chairman of 
which he made the only address, with all the patriotic fire of 
his young manhood, closing with, ''there are now but two 
parties, our country and its invaders." 

His intimacy and friendly correspondence with the great 
men of the revolution was lifelong. 

John Adams wrote in 1824: 

"Thomas M'Kean and Caesar Kodney were among the 
Patrick Henrys, the Christopher Gadsdens, the Thomas Jeffer- 
sons, the Samuel Adams, the Roger Shermans — the best tried 
and firmest pillars of the revolution." 

Thomas Jefferson: "He was among the soundest, firmest 
and most zealous of republicans with whom it has been my 
fortune to act through life." 

He was conferred the degree of LL.D. by Princeton and 
Dartmouth colleges, was a member of the Philadelphia Society 
for the Promotion of Agriculture, of the Society of Cincin- 
nati, a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and president 
of the Hibernian Society. 

In person he was tall, erect and well proportioned, with 
great firmness of countenance and dignified manners. 

He was twice married. 

He outlived the hostilities of a heated and conspicuous pub- 
lic career of over half a century, and when beyong eighty-three 
years of age, died at Philadelphia, June 24, 1817, was mourned 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 157 

by the entire country for whose liberties he had staked his 
life. 

For Maryland 

Samuel Chase 

Samuel Chase was born in Somerset, Maryland, April 17, 
1741, and died June 19, 1811. 

He was a member of the Colonial Legislature for twenty 
years, a member of the Maryland committee of correspondence, 
and of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1779. He 
was most efficient in changing the sentiment of Maryland, se- 
curing the repeal of the instructions given the delegation from 
that state to vote against independence, and an instruction that 
authorized him and his colleagues to vote for the declaration. 

He was judge of the Maryland criminal court, chief justice 
of that state's superior court, and a justice of its supreme 
court. 

His life was an eventful and stormy one. While judge of 
the criminal court at Baltimore, two very popular men were 
arrested and refused to give bail. Judge Chase ordered the 
sheriff to summon a posse comitatus and take them to jail. 
The sheriff reported that all whom he summoned refused to 
serve. ''Summon me, then," ordered the judge. The sheriff 
obeyed, and the judge left the bench, seized the rebellious 
prisoners and was marching them to jail, when they took dis- 
cretion to be the better part of valor and gave the required 
bail. An effort was made to impeach him, but it failed. 

He was appointed a justice of the supreme court of the 
United States in 1796, and served in that exalted station for 
fifteen years. He was tried under articles of impeachment 
while holding that position, but was acquitted. He was a very 
decided, positive character, and one of the greatest of our early 
jurists. 

William Paca 

William Paca, scion of a family long known in Maryland 
for high civic virtues, as well as wealth and influence, was 



158 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEPS 

born at Wye Hall, Hartford county, Maryland, October 31, 
1740. 

He was classically educated at the Philadelphia college, 
and in law at Annapolis, Maryland, and in London, England. 

In 1761 he was elected to the Maryland Legislature with his 
college friend, Samuel Chase, both becoming early prominent 
therein, he being chosen one of the commissioners under whose 
charge the state capital building was erected; and in the 
troublous times preceding the revolution, a member of the 
committee of correspondence. 

From 1774 to 1779 he was a member of the Continental Con- 
gress. He and his associates were held in check by the per- 
emptory instruction of the Maryland legislature not to con- 
sent to any proposition to declare the colonies independent. 
The repeal of this instruction was effected on June 28, 1776, 
enabling them to vote as they wished for the Declaration of 
Independence. 

From 1777 to 1779 he was a member of the Maryland 
senate, chief justice of the Maryland supreme court from 1778 
to 1782, when he was elected governor, filling that office for one 
year, and being reelected to the same exalted station in 1786, 
when he again served as governor for one year. 

In the state convention called to decide upon the ratifica- 
tion of the Constitution, he was ardently in favor of it and 
influential in its adoption. 

He was appointed by "Washington the first district judge 
of the United States court for Maryland, in 1789, and held that 
most honorable office at the time of his death, at Wye Hall, in 
1799. 

Thomas Stone 

Thomas Stone was born in Charles county, Maryland, in 
1743, and died, at Port Tobacco, Maryland, October 5, 1787. 

He was educated under a celebrated Scotch teacher, and 
adopted the profession of the law. He was many times a 
member of the Maryland assembly, a member of the Con- 
tinental Congress from 1775 to 1779, and again from 1783 to 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 159 

1784, being at one time president pro tempore of that body; 
and among other committees served on the committee to pre- 
pare the Articles of Confederation. 

He was a direct descendant of "William Stone, governor of 
Maryland, during the time of Cromwell, and by heredity and 
rearing a lover of the rights of the common people. 

The delegates from Maryland were burdened with the 
severest instructions against independence of those from any 
colony. It was only by the utmost exertions by him and 
kindred patriots that these instructions were finally so changed 
as to allow them to vote for it. 

He was not a brilliant or learned man, but practical and 
persistent and rendered useful service in congress and the 
legislature of his state. 

He declined an appointment to the constitutional conven- 
tion, but ably supported its adoption by his state. 

Charles Carroll 

History tells, to their eternal honor, that the Catholic pro- 
prietors of Maryland were the first authorities in America to 
grant religious liberty. Devoted to their church, as Catholics 
always are, surrounded on every side by religious persecution, 
they set on these shores the rule of doing unto others as they 
would be done by, and gave to all freedom to worship at any 
shrine they chose to bend a knee. 

Charles Carroll, grandfather of the signer, came from Ire- 
land to Baltimore in 1691 as judge and register of the land 
office, and agent and receiver of rents for Lord Baltimore. 

His son, Charles, born in 1702, was active in the provincial 
government, and a leader of the Maryland Catholics. 

With the increase of Protestant emigration, the generous 
and christian tolerance of the Catholics was returned by legis- 
lative and personal persecution that disgraced our country's 
annals. He, with a large portion of the Catholics, decided to 



160 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

seek distant parts of the country on account of this brutality, 
and while on a visit to France, he applied for a grant of a large 
tract belonging to France in Louisiana, where they might en- 
joy that unmolested religious. liberty they had accorded to, but 
had been denied by their fellows. 

Unable to secure it, he returned to Maryland. Returning 
sense of justice relaxed the rigor of the laws against the 
Catholics, and the Western emigration was abandoned. 

The heredity of such ancestry made of Charles Carroll, of 
Carrollton, who was born at Annapolis, September 8, 1737, an 
hereditary lover of liberty and one of the fittest signers of the 
greater Magna Charta of freedom — our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. 

His father was one of the wealthiest men in the whole coun- 
try, and educated him in France at St. Omers and Rheims. He 
then took a course in civil law at Bourges and Paris, complet- 
ing his legal course at the Temple, London. 

After an absence of nineteen years, he returned to Balti- 
more in 1764, one of our country's most cultured men. 

With Chase, Stone, Paca and Dulany he led in the resistance 
to the growing abuses of the British authorities. 

Against the enforcement of fees by Governor Eden's 
proclamation, without consulting the legislature, he became the 
first writer of the period, proclaiming that, "in a land of 
freedom, this arbitrary exertion of prerogative will not, must 
not, be endured." 

''The talent and firmness evinced by Mr. Carroll in his con- 
test with Dulany raised him at once to a high station in the 
confidence of the people ; and we find him, during the years 
1773-74-75, actively engaged in all the measures which were 
taken in opposition to the course of Great Britain's colonial 
policy. From the earliest symptoms of discontent, Mr, Carroll 
foresaw the issue, and made up his mind to abide it." 

This boldness by one whose large property made it all the 
graver risk, met with universal applause. The people of An- 
napolis published this grateful commendation of his able and 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION IQI 

heroic course, signed by William Paca and Mr. Matthews, 
delegated to prepare it : 

''The free and independent citizens of Annapolis, the 
metropolis of Maryland, who have lately honored us with the 
public character of representatives, impressed with a just sense 
of the signal services which you have done your country, in- 
structed us, on the day of our election, to return you their 
hearty thanks. Public gratitude, sir, for public services, is the 
patriot's due; and we are proud to observe the generous feel- 
ings of our fellow citizens towards an advocate of liberty." 

When it became generally known that Mr. Carroll was the 
writer of the pieces signed "First Citizen," the people of An- 
napolis, not satisfied with the letter of their delegates, came in 
a body to thank him for his exertions in their behalf and de- 
fense of their rights. 

He sprang at once to a leadership in public regard and 
confidence. That he early, and in advance of most, correctly 
saw the coming conflict, is shown in the following historic 
record : Once, when conversing with Samuel Chase, in 1771 or 
1772, the latter remarked, "Carroll, we have completely writ- 
ten them down." "And do you think," Mr. Carroll asked, 
"that writing will settle the question between us?" "To be 
sure," replied Mr. Chase. "What else can we resort to?" "The 
bayonet, ' ' was the answer. ' ' Our arguments will only raise the 
feelings of the people to that pitch, when open war will be 
looked to as the arbiter of the dispute." 

To the sneer of a member of parliament, that six thousand 
English soldiers would march from end to end of the con- 
tinent, he wrote in reply : 

' ' So they may, but they will be masters of the spot only on 
which they encamp. They will find naught but enemies before 
and around them. If w^e are beaten on the plains, we will re- 
treat to our mountains and defy them. Our resources will in- 
crease with our difficulties. Necessity will force us to exertion : 
until, tired of combatting in vain against a spirit which victory 
after victory cannot subdue, your armies will evacuate our soil, 



162 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

and your country retire, an immense loser, from the contest. 
No, sir, we have made up our minds to abide the issue of the 
approaching struggle, and though much blood be spilt, we have 
no doubt of our ultimate success." 

"When it was attempted to land a cargo of tea at Annapolis, 
as at Boston, he advised the owner of the vessel to burn ship 
and cargo. His advice was followed and with sails set and 
colors flying the ship was set on fire and burned to the water's 
«dge. 

In 1775 he was chosen a member of the first committee on 
observation at Annapolis and a member of the Maryland con- 
vention. 

In 1776 he was sent by the congress with Benjamin 
Franklin and Samuel Chase in the fruitless effort to induce 
Canada to join the other colonies, his prominence as a Catholic 
being one of his recommendations for that important mission. 

In 1775 he had vigorously opposed the instructions of Mary- 
land to her delegation in congress "to disavow in the most 
solemn manner, all design of the colonies of independence." 

Returning to the convention in 1776, after his trip to 
Canada, he urged the recall of this instruction, and in its stead 
adopting an instruction "to concur with the other colonies, or 
a majority of them, in declaring the colonies free and inde- 
pendent states." 

No time was to be lost. The vote of every colony was 
needed. His great efforts were rewarded with success on July 
2, 1776, and he was sent as one of the delegates to congress 
to cast the vote of Maryland for independence. He did not 
arrive in time to cast that vote, but the instruction had the de- 
sired result, Maryland's vote was cast for independence and 
he had the honor of signing the immortal Declaration he had 
done so much to make possible. 

He continued in congress until 1778, at the same time re- 
taining his seat in the Maryland convention, and in 1787 was 
elected a delegate to, but ill-health prevented his attending, 
the National Constitutional Convention. 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION 163 

In 1776 he aided in framing the constitution of Maryland, 
was elected to the first senate under it, remained a member of 
that body until elected one of Maryland's first United States 
senators in 1788, returned to the state senate in 1791, and 
closed his public career therein in 1804. 

When he signed the Declaration of Independence and the 
members of congress were joking as to their fate, if doomed to 
defeat, one of them facetiously said as he signed, "There goes 
a few millions." 

His stake was large in a financial as well as personal sense, 
and he put his identity beyond all question by adding "of 
Carrollton" to his name. 

This was from no purse-proud feeling, but, as there was an- 
other Charles Carroll, to designate which one he was, and 
bear the penalty, if such should ever be, for his courageous 
act. 

In 1768 he married the amiable Miss Mary Darnell. In 1825 
one of his granddaughters married the Marquis of Wellesley, 
viceroy of Ireland, thus becoming vice queen of Ireland one 
hundred and forty years after her ancient ancestor left it, and 
wife of one of the highest officials of the country against 
which her grandfather had borne so conspicuous a part. As 
the Bishop of England said, "that in the land from which his 
fathers fled in fear, his daughter's daughter now reigned a 
queen. ' ' 

He was below middle size, slight of frame. His face was 
strongly marked, his eye quick and piercing, his whole coun- 
tenance expressive of energy and determination. His man- 
ners easy, affable and graceful; in all the elegancies and ob- 
servances of polite society few men were his superiors." 

He died at Baltimore, November 14, 1832, the last survivor 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

As such, as well as in tribute of his eminent christian char- 
acter and splendid accomplishments, he was the object of 
universal reverential regard during the last years of his long 
and illustrious life. 



164 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

For Virginia 
George Wythe 

(See Framers of the Constitution, page 432.) 

Richard Henry Lee 

The Lee family is one of the oldest and most distinguished 
in Virginia, The first Richard Henry Lee, was instrumental, 
above all others, in procuring for Virginia its title as an in- 
dependent dominion, and in consequence of her adherence to 
him, Charles II had the arms of Virginia quartered on the 
escutcheon of his kingdom. His second son, Richard Henry 
Lee, was made a member and subsequently president of the 
king's council in the colony. 

The third Richard Henry Lee, son of Thomas, was born at 
Stratford, "Westmoreland county, Virginia, January 20, 1732, 
and given the most liberal educational advantages in this 
country and in England. Returning to Virginia he pursued a 
course of self-education in the home of his brother, who was 
possessed of an extensive library. Ethics and the philosophy 
of history were favorite studies and his compositions thereon, 
preserved by the family, show, not only his diligence as a 
student, but also his high order of intellect. With Washington 
he served under Braddock in his disastrous campaign. 

He began his political career in the House of Burgesses in 
1757 The first debate in which he took part was in favor of 
prohibiting the importation of slaves into Virginia, in which 
the following were in part his eloquent words : 

''Nor, sir, are these the only reasons to be urged against the 
importation. In my opinion, not the cruelties practiced in the 
conquest of Spanish America, not the savage barbarities of a 
Saracen, can be more big with atrocity than our cruel trade 
to Africa. There we encourage those poor ignorant people to 
wage eternal war against each other; not nation against na- 
tion, but father against son, children against parents, and 
brothers against brothers ; whereby parental and filial affection 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 165 

is terribly violated; that by war, stealth or surprise, we 
Christians may be furnished with our fellow creatures, who 
are no longer to be considered as created in the image of God, 
as well as ourselves, and equally entitled to liberty and free- 
dom, by the great law of nature, but they are to be deprived, 
forever deprived, of all the comforts of life, and to be made 
the most miserable of all the human race. I have seen it ob- 
served by a great writer, that Christianity, by introducing 
into Europe the truest principles of humanity, universal benev- 
olence and brotherly love, had happily abolished civil slavery. 
Let us, who profess the same religion, practice its precepts, 
and by agreeing to this duty, convince the world that we know 
and practice our true interests, and that we pay a proper re- 
gard to the dictates of justice and humanity." 

The address to the king and the remonstrance to parliament 
against the Stamp Act and against the taxation of Virginia 
people without allowing them representation, directed to be 
made by the committee of the House of Burgesses, were both 
prepared by him. 

The celebrated resolutions of Patrick Henry in 1765, found 
in him a supporter second only to Henry. It was through 
their united eloquence that these resolutions were carried. He 
formed the first association in Virginia, wherein he united all 
classes, the descendants of the cavaliers, as well as those of 
humbler origin, to resist these growing infringements of their 
rights. This article of that association, being one of the 
articles signed by all of its members shows the spirit that ani- 
mated the men who dared its perils : 

"As the Stamp Act does absolutely direct the property of 
the people to be taken from them, without their consent ex- 
pressed by their representatives, and in many cases it de- 
prives the British-American subject of his right to be tried by 
jury, we do determine, at every hazard, and paying no regard 
to death, to exert every faculty to prevent the execution of the 
Stamp Act, in every instance, within the colony." 

At the head of the members of this association, he went to 



166 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

the house of the English official who had them in charge, com- 
pelled him to give up the stamp papers, destroy his commis- 
sion, and swear he would no further distribute such stamps. As 
he was a man of large property this act subjected him not only 
to severe punishment for the offence, but confiscation of his 
property by the British authorities. 

The honor of originating the committees of correspondence, 
"to watch the conduct of the British parliament, to spread 
more widely correct information on topics connected with the 
interests of the colonies, and to form a closer union of the men 
of influence in each," is claimed by the friends of both for him 
and Samuel Adams. 

Colonel Gadsden, of South Carolina, stated that in 1768 Mr. 
Lee solicited him to become a member of a society, "the object 
of which was to obtain a mutual pledge from the members to 
write for the public journals or papers of their respective 
colonies, and to converse with and inform the people on the 
subject of their rights and wrongs, and upon all seasonable oc- 
casions to impress upon their minds the necessity of a struggle 
with Great Britain for the ultimate establishment of inde- 
pendence." 

In 1774, with Washington and Patrick Henry, he was sent 
as a delegate to the Continental Congress. In this body he at 
once took first rank and was made a member of its leading 
committees, especially that to prepare the addresses to the 
king of England, to the British people and to the colonies, and 
is credited with having written these addresses, as well as the 
second address to the the British in 1775 in the name of the 
congress of that year. It was this address that evoked from 
Lord Chatham this tribute : 

"When you consider their decency, firmness and wisdom, 
you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make it your 
own. For myself, I must declare and avow that in all my read- 
ing, and it has been my favorite pursuit, that for solidity of 
reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 167 

all the circumstances, no nation or body of men, can stand in 
preference to the general congress at Philadelphia." 

Virginia had instructed her delegates in 1776 to propose a 
Declaration of Independence by the congress, and Lee was 
chosen to present the resolution. His eloquent address in 
favor if it closes as follows : 

''Why then, sir, why do we longer delay? Why still de- 
liberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American re- 
public. Let her arise, not to devastate and to conquer, but to 
reestablish the reign of peace and law. The eyes of Europe 
are fixed upon us ; she demands of us a living example of 
freedom, that may exhibit a contrast, in the felicity of the 
citizen, to the ever increasing tyranny which desolates her 
polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum, where 
the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose. She 
entreats us to cultivate a propitious soil, where that generous 
plant which first sprung and grew in England, but is now 
withered by the poisonous blasts of tyranny, may revive and 
flourish, sheltering under its salubrious and interminable shade 
all the unfortunate of the human race. If we are not this day 
wanting in our duty, the names of the American legislators of 
1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of Theseus, Lycur- 
gus and Romulus, of the three Williams of Nassau, and of all 
of those whose memory has been, and ever will be, dear to 
virtuous men and good citizens." 

Critical illness in his family just at this time called him 
home, or he would have been chairman of the committee that 
prepared that immortal Declaration. Thomas Jefferson took 
his place, and by its drafting won the immortality which would 
have been his had this been the only achievement of his life. 

Despite this fact, he was charged at home with toryism and 
disaffection to his country and obtained leave from congress to 
return home and answer this infamous accusation of malicious 
envy. He demanded an investigation by the Virginia assembly, 
and the venerable George Wythe voiced his vindication in these 
words : 



J.68 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

"Tt is with peculiar pleasure, sir, that I obey this com- 
mand of the house, because it gives me an opportunity while I 
am performing an act of duty to them, to perform an act of 
justice to yourself. Serving with you in congress, and at- 
tentively observing your conduct there, I thought that you 
manifested in the American cause a zeal truly patriotic ; and as 
far as I could judge, exerted the abilities for which you are 
confessedly distinguished, to promote the good and prosperity 
of your own country in particular, and of the United States 
in general. That the tribute of praise deserved may reward 
those who do well, and encourage others to follow your ex- 
ample, the house have come to this resolutioji ; That the thanks 
of this house be given by the speaker to Eichard Henry Lee, 
Esq., for the faithful services he has rendered his country, in 
discharge of his duty as one of the delegates from this state 
in general congress." 

He was again a member of the Continental Congress from 
1778 to 1780, 1784 to 1787, and president of that congress in 
1784. He also saw active service in the field with the Virginia 
militia during this period, and during the years from 1780 to 
1782 declined a seat in the congress in order that he might 
serve in the assembly of his state, where he and Patrick Henry 
were known as the most eloquent orators of that distinguished 
body. 

He opposed the adoption of the constitution, without ad- 
ditional amendments, in the Virginia convention called to pass 
upon adopting it, because of his fear that it would make of the 
national government a consolidated government that would 
lead to despotism and the overthrow of local self-government 
in the states, but when it was adopted, he became its firm sup- 
porter. 

It was due to the influence of him and others who cherished 
the same opinions that the first ten amendments to the con- 
stitution, which may be considered part of the original, were so 
early adopted. 

He was elected one of Virginia 's first United States senators 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 169 

in 1789, serving three years, when his failing health compelled 
him to retire from public life. Upon this event the senate and 
house of delegates of Virginia unanimously agreed to the fol- 
lowing vote of thanks : 

"That the speaker be desired to convey to Richard Henry 
Lee, Esq., the respects of the senate ; that they sincerely sym- 
pathize with him in those infirmities which have deprived their 
country of his' valuable services; and that they ardently wish 
he may, in his retirement, with uninterrupted happiness close 
the evening of a life, in which he hath so conspicuously shone 
forth as a statesman and a patriot; that while mindful of his 
many exertions to promote the public interests, they are par- 
ticularly thankful for his conduct as a member of the legisla- 
ture of the United States." 

He was a man of commanding presence, of splendid voice, 
of wide culture in all the graces of the speaker and uni- 
versally regarded as second to no orator of his time. Neither 
his state nor the Continental Congress knew a more impas- 
sioned or eloquent statesman. "While the state papers prepared 
by him are models of elegant diction and forceful argument, 
like Patrick Henry and Henry Clay, he shone brightest when 
facing an audience and thrilling them with his earnest and 
lofty eloquence. 

His health steadily declined after leaving the United States 
senate until his death at Chantilly, Virginia, June 19, 1794. 

Thomas Jefferson 

The ancestors of Thomas Jefferson came to Virginia among 
the first settlers. They were among the pioneers of poverty 
whose hardy industry brought prosperity. His father, Peter 
Jefferson, was sufficiently prominent to be chosen in 1747 one 
of the commissioners to fix the dividing line between Virginia 
and North Carolina, and on his death left his son, Thomas, an 
ample fortune. The son was born at Shadwell, Albermarle 
county, April 13, 1743, and was educated at the College of 
William and Mary. He studied law under the celebrated 



170 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PEAMEES 

George Wythe, who bequeathed him his law library, and ac- 
quired such proficiency that he edited a volume of reports of 
the decisions of the supreme court of Virginia, but his whole 
life was occupied in political activity: 

In 1769 he entered upon.his political career as a member of 
the Virginia legislature, which closed forty years thereafter as 
President of the United States. 

Many ties of blood, education and interest made Virginia 
peculiarly attached to England. Washington and many of her 
sons, had served in the British army. They gloried in their 
English origin and citizenship. Only when driven to despera- 
tion did they resist the wrongs done the colonies, which he 
describes as follows : 

''The colonies were taxed internally and externally; their 
essential interests sacrificed to individuals in Great Britain; 
their legislatures suspended ; charters annulled; trials by juries 
taken away; their persons subjected to transportation across 
the Atlantic, and to trial before foreign jurisdictions for 
redress thought beneath answer; themselves published as 
cowards in the councils of their mother country and courts of 
Europe ; armed troops sent among&t them to enforce submission 
to these violences, and actual hostilities commenced against 
them. No alternative was presented but resistance, or uncon- 
ditional submission. Between these there could be no hesita- 
tion. They closed in the appeal to arms." 

In March 1773 he was made a member of the first com- 
mittee of correspondence established by the colonies, anc^ the 
next year wrote to the king of England his famous address 
entitled, ''Summary View of the Eights of British America," 
for which Lord Dunmore threatened to prosecute him for 
treason. 

In 1775 he framed the reply of the Virginia legislature to 
the resolution of the British parliament presented by Lord 
Dunmore, which our history preserves as one of the most able 
and eloquent of state papers, and which concludes as fol- 
lows : 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 171 

"These, my lord, are our sentiments on this important sub- 
ject, which we offer only as an individual part of this whole 
empire. Final determination we leave to the general congress 
now sitting, before whom we shall lay the papers your lord- 
ship has communicated to us. For ourselves, we have ex- 
hausted every mode of application which our invention could 
suggest as proper and promising. We have decently remon- 
strated with parliament, they have added new injuries to the 
old; we have wearied our king with supplications, he has not 
deigned to answer us; we have appealed to the native honor 
and justice of the British nation, their efforts in our favor 
have hitherto been ineffectual. What then remains to be 
done ? That we commit our injuries to the even handed justice 
of that Being who doth no wrong, earnestly beseeching him to 
illuminate the councils, and prosper the endeavors of those to 
whom America hath confided her hopes; that through their 
wise directions, we may again see reunited the blessings of 
liberty, prosperity and harmony with Great Britain." 

He had been elected the previous March to the Continental 
Congress, and soon after his entry was made a member of the 
committee to draw up the address setting forth the reasons 
for the colonies taking up arms, which was written with that 
remarkable ability that characterized all his public utterances. 

In June, 1776, he was appointed chairman of the committee 
to draft the Declaration of Independence, the other members 
being John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and 
R. R. Livingston. 

Mr. Adams' account ot the writing of that Declaration, so 
dear to every American, is as follows : 

"The committee met, discussed the subject, and then ap. 
pointed Mr. Jefferson and me to make the draft, I suppose be- 
cause we were the two first on the list. 

"The sub-committee met. Jefferson proposed to me to make 
the draft. I said, 'I will not.' 'You should do it.' 'Oh, no.' 
'Why will you not? You ought to do it.' 'I will not. "Why?' 
'Reasons enough.' 'What can be your reasons?' 'Reason first, 



172 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the 
head of this business. Eeason second, I am obnoxious, 
suspected and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. 
Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.' 
'Well,' said Jefferson, 'if you are decided, I will do as well as 
I can.' 'Very well, when you have drawn it up we will have a 
meeting,' " 

Mr. Adams adds it was reported without change by the 
committee, when congress cut off about a quarter of it, and 
some of the best of it. 

This is how Thomas Jefferson, the statesman who never 
made a speech, came to immortalize himself in the writing of 
the Declaration of Independence. 

His part in that congress was one of the highest importance 
and greatest activity, but along the lines of the general con- 
cerns of the country. 

His career therein was brief. He was appointed with Ben- 
jamin Franklin and Silas Deane, a commissioner to visit and 
form with France a treaty of alliance, which he declined, re- 
signing his position in congress in October to return to and 
assist in the formation of a constitution for Virginia. In that 
legislature he opposed the proposition to create a dictator for 
Virginia, and was appointed chairman of the committee con- 
sisting of himself, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George 
Mason and Thomas Ludwell Lee, who during the next two 
years performed the gigantic task of revising the laws of Vir- 
ginia, 

His kindness and courtesy to the British prisoners taken at 
Saratoga and confined in Virginia brought from them the 
most cordial expressions of gratitude, and showed a humanity 
above carrying in and adding to the horrors of war a personal 
enmity, or vindictive spirit. 

In 1779 he was elected governor of Virginia to succeed 
Patrick Henry. The state was then being overrun by the 
enemy, and the duties of his great office were never more try- 
ing, or performed with more distinguished success, yet in the 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 173 

legislature that met after he retired from the governorship it 
was moved to censure him for negligence in his duties. That 
body voted down the resolution and tendered him its unanimous 
thanks for his attentive administration. 

In 1781 he wrote a book entitled "Notes on Virginia," 
which was translated into French, and but for his illustrious 
political career would have made him noted for scientific re- 
search. 

In 1783 he was returned to congress, where he crowned 
the successful close of the great drama of the revolution, in 
reporting the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and aided 
Gouverneur Morris in establishing our decimal system of cur- 
rency. 

In 1784 he anticipated the great ordinance of 1787 for the 
government of the Northwest territory, by proposing, in re- 
gard thereto and the states to be formed therefrom : 

"That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall 
be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said 
states, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the 
party shall have been convicted to have been personally 
guilty." 

But the proposition was rejected. 

In 1784 he was appointed associate minister with John 
Adams and Benjamin Franklin to negotiate treaties of com- 
merce in Europe, and in 1785 to succeed Franklin as minister to 
France, continuing in that high position until October, 1789. 

During this time he travelled in Holland and Italy, and 
developed that hostility to monarchy, disgust of parade of ap- 
parel, the pomp and tinsel of courts, and love for republican 
government that made his subsequent career so distinguished 
for democratic sentiment. 

From France he wrote an elaborate commendation, as well 
as criticism of the proposed constitution.. His criticism was the 
lack of a bill of rights, of the more distinct guarantee of trial 
by jury ; and that it did not provide against the reelection of 
the president. He feared the despotism of central authority, 



174 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

and the power of the president to secure his continuance in of- 
fice. He vigorously contended against what was termed an 
energetic central government giving tranquillity, using this re- 
markable language : 

"In Turkey, where the sole nod of the despot is death, in- 
surrections are the events of every day. Compare again the 
ferocious depredations of their insurgents with the order, the 
moderation, and the almost self-extinguishment of ours, and 
say, finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving energy 
to the government, or information to the people. This last is 
the most certain and the most legitimate engine of govern- 
ment. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people, en- 
able them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and 
order, and they will preserve it; and it requires no very high 
degree of education to convince them of this ; they are the only 
sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. After all, it is 
my principle that the will of the majority should prevail. If 
they approve the proposed constitution in all its parts, I shall 
concur in it cheerfully, in hopes they will amend it, whenever 
they shall find it works wrong. This reliance cannot deceive us, 
as long as we remain virtuous ; and I think we shall be so, as 
long as agriculture is our principle object, which will be the 
case while there remain vacant lands in any part of America. 
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in 
Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe, and go to eating 
one another as they do there." 

On his return to America in 1789 Washington made him 
our first secretary of state. His varied and distinguished 
services in that high ofiice would require a volume to recount. 
They are written in the most glorious pages of American 
history. He retired from this exalted station in 1793, and held 
no public place for several years. 

This period he devoted to the education of his children, the 
improvement of his estate, and the pursuit of his philosophical 
studies, to which he was always passionately devoted. 

The Duke de Liancourt who visited him wrote: 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLAEATION 175 

"He possesses a stock of information not inferior to that 
of any other man. In Europe, he would hold a distinguished 
rank among men of letters, and as such he has already ap- 
peared there. At present he is employed with activity and 
perseverance in the management of his farms and buildings, 
and he orders, directs and pursues, in the minutest detail, every 
branch of business relating to them. The author of this sketch 
found him in the midst of a harvest, from which the scorching 
heat of the sun does not prevent his attendance. His negroes 
are nourished, clothed and treated as well as white servants 
could be. As he cannot expect any assistance from the two 
small neighboring towns, every article is made on his farm ; 
his negroes are cabinet makers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, 
etc. The children he employs in a nail manufactory, which 
yields already a considerable profit. The young and old ne- 
gresses spin for the clothing of the rest. He animates them 
by rewards and distinctions ; in fine, his superior mind directs 
the management of his domestic concerns with the same 
abilities, activity and regularity which he evinced in the con- 
duct of public affairs, and which he is calculated to display in 
every situation of life." 

He was elected president of the American Philosophical So- 
ciety, and took an active part in its work, contributing to its 
publications, and extending its practical usefulness. This high 
honor was due to no political prominence, but to his attain- 
ments as a man of culture, science and the highest order of 
scholarship. 

In 1796 he was voted for as President of the United States, 
but John Adams, receiving the largest number of votes, was 
elected, and Mr. Jefferson became the vice president. 

In 1800 he contested for this highest office in the gift of 
America with Aaron Burr, was elected president by one vote, 
and in 1804 was reelected by an immense majority. 

One of the chief events of his administration was the 
"Louisiana Purchase," by which our country in 1803 bought 
from France for $15,000,000, the vast territory west of the 



176 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

Mississippi, now comprising all of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis- 
souri, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, the two 
Dakotas, nearly all of Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas 
and a large part of Colorado. 

He confessed his belief that this was stretching the con- 
stitution, and desired an amendment thereto to cover it. 

He was as ardent advocate for universal freedom as 
Abraham Lincoln. In the Virginia assembly, prior to the revo- 
lution, he introduced a bill empowering masters to free their 
slaves. In the Declaration of Independence he had a clause 
condemning slavery, but it was stricken out. 

He was the founder of the University of Virginia and its 
rector until his death. The epitaph on his tomb, composed by 
himself, reads: 

"Here lies the body of Thomas Jefferson, author of the 
Declaration of Independence, of the Statutes of Virginia for 
Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia." 

Many of the best laws of Virginia were due to his efforts. 
The motto on his seal was, ''Eebellion to tyrants is obedience 
to God." 

His teachings and influence dominate much ot the political 
thought of the country to this day. He was the founder of 
what is now known as the Democratic party. 

In consequence of his experience abroad he became 
morbidly suspicious of a monarchial party in the United 
States, and while a member of one of the most aristocratic 
families in Virginia, was forever after his stay in France most 
democratic in his habits. 

The two schools of political thought that will probably al- 
ways divide our country, that for a strong central govern- 
ment, a liberal construction of the constitution, on the one 
hand; on the other, a central government of limited and 
clearly defined powers, nothing left to implication, and a strict 
construction given to the National Constitution, took their 
origin while he was a member of Washington's cabinet, 
Alexander Hamilton being the leader on- the one side and he 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLABATION 177 

on the other. One of his favorite expressions was, ''the world 
is governed too much ; that government is best which governs 
least." 

He has been accused of infidelity, an accusation contra- 
dicted by his state papers and letters for over fifty years. His 
second inaugural closes: 

"I do not fear that any motives of interest may lead me 
astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me 
knowingly from the path of justice; but the weaknesses of 
human nature and the limits of my own understanding will 
produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your in- 
terests ; I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence I have here- 
tofore experienced — the want of it will certainly not lessen 
with increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that 
Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as 
Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a 
country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life, 
who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our 
riper years with his wisdom and power." 

In his final message to Congress, after expressing his grati- 
tude to the American people, he said : 

"Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies, I 
trust that in their steady character, unshaken by difficulties, in 
their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of public 
authorities, I see a sure guarantee of the permanence of our re- 
public ; and retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry 
with me the consolation of a firm persuasion, that Heaven has in 
store for our beloved country, long ages to come of prosperity 
and happiness." 

He will live as one of the greatest, purest statesmen, and 
most scholarly writers America will ever honor. He never 
would appoint a relative to office, and lived up to the high 
ideal cf an eminent successor that "public office is a public 
trust." 

His old age was burdened with financial embarrassment. 
He had neglected his private affairs for so many years, and his 



178 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

lavish hospitality was taxed by entertainment of so many 
visitors, that he became heavily involved, and the Virginia 
legislature passed an act allowing him to dispose of his prop- 
erty by a lottery to pay his debts. 

In January, 1772, he married Miss Wayles, the daughter of 
an eminent Virginia lawyer. She died some ten years after, 
leaving two daughters, only one of whom lived to maturity, 
and to whom he was devotedly attached. On his death bed he 
presented her a small morocco case, which he requested her not 
to open until after his death. It contained an affectionate 
poem to her. 

Special exercises were held all over the country to cele- 
brate the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 

He was invited to join in those at Washington, but, his 
health forbidding, he wrote the mayor of "Washington his last 
letter, closing as follows : 

''I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and ex- 
changed there congratulations, personally, with the small band, 
the remnant of the host of worthies who joined with us, on 
that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make 
for our country, between submission and the sword; and to 
have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact that our fellow 
citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, con- 
tinue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the world, 
what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, 
but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the 
chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had 
persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the bless- 
ings and security of self-government. The form which we have 
substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise 
of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened or 
opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the lights 
of science has already laid open to every view the palpable 
truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with sad- 
dles on their backs, nor a favored few, booted and spurred, 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION I79 

ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These 
are grounds of hope for others; for ourselves, let the annual 
return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these 
rights, and an undiminished devotion to them." 

On July third it was seen that his final hour was near. He 
was conscious that his earthly career was closing, and ex- 
pressed the wish that he might live to see the fiftieth anni- 
versary of what he cherished as his greatest achievement. His 
mind was clear and unclouded. The pathetic scene of the last 
hours of the patriot, longing to greet once more the dawn of 
that great day whose work will illuminate the pathway of lib- 
erty for all time, will live in his country's tenderest memory. 

Fifty years after the adoption of the immortal Declaration 
that he penned, he and John Adams, whom he succeeded as 
President, and who was second to him on the committee to pre- 
pare it, almost at the same hour, July 4, 1826, passed to the 
Great Beyond. His tomb is at Monticello, where he died. 

This sketch by a great biographer of this, one of the most 
remarkable characters in our history, is not only of universal 
interest, but teaches the lesson to ambitious youth, that op- 
portunity can be utilized only by preparedness, that greatness 
never comes by chance, but is the slow maturing fruit of steady, 
constant, persistent toil: 

''At the time of his death Mr. Jefferson had reached the 
age of eighty-three years, two months and twenty-one days. 
In person he was six feet two inches high, erect and well 
formed, though thin ; his eyes were light, and full of intelli- 
gence ; his hair very abundant and originally red, though in his 
latter years, silvered with age. His complexion was fair and 
his countenance remarkably expressive ; his forehead broad, 
the nose rather larger than the common size, and the whole 
face square and expressive of deep thinking. In his conversa- 
tion he was cheerful and enthusiastic ; and his language was 
remarkable for its vivacity and correctness. His manners were 
extremely simple and unaffected ; mingled, however, with much 
native but unobtrusive dignity. 



180 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

"In his disposition Mr, Jefferson was full of liberality and 
benevolence; of this the neighborhood of Monticello affords in- 
numerable monuments, and on his own estate, such was the 
condition of his slaves, that in their comforts his own interests 
were too often entirely forgotten. He possessed uncommon 
fortitude and strength of mind, with great firmness and per- 
sonal courage — in forming his opinions he was slow and con- 
siderate, but when once formed, he relinquished them with 
great reluctance ; his equanimity and command of temper were 
such, that his oldest friends have remarked "that they never 
saw him give way to his passions ; by his domestics he was re- 
garded with all the warmth of filial affection. His attachment 
to his friends was warm and unvarying; his hospitality was 
far beyond his means, and left him, as we have seen, in his 
old age, the victim of unexpected poverty. 

''The domestic habits of Mr. Jefferson were quite simple. 
His application was constant and excessive. He rose very early 
and, after his retirement from public life, devoted the morning 
to reading and to his correspondence, which was varied and 
extensive to a degree that, in his latter years, became exceed- 
ingly troublesome. He then rode for an hour or two, an exer- 
cise to which he felt all the characteristic attachment of a Vir- 
ginian. After dinner he returned to his studies with fresh 
ardor, and then devoting his evening to his family, retired to 
bed at a very early hour. 

"The studies of Mr. Jefferson were extended to almost 
every branch of literature and science. He was the father of 
some, and the patron of many of the institutions of his coun- 
try for their promotion. He was said to be a profound mathe- 
matician, and he was in the habit of obtaining from France up 
to the very day of his death, the most abstruse treaties on that 
branch of science. His acquaintance with most of the modern 
languages was minutely accurate ; he was a profound Greek 
scholar, having devoted himself during his residence in 
Europe to an extensive and thorough study of that language ; 
and he is said to have cultivated a knowledge of those dialects 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLAEATION ]81 

of northern Europe, growing out of the Gothic, which are so 
closely connected with our own language, laws, customs and 
history." 



Thomas Jefferson's Ten Rules. 

1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. 

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 

3. Never spend your money before you have earned it. 

4. Never buy what you don't want because it is cheap. 

5. Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold. 

6. We seldom repent of eating too little. 

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 

8. How much pain the evils have cost us that have never happened ! 

9. Take things always by the smooth handle. 

10. When angry, count ten before you speak ; if very angry, count a hundred. 

Benjamin Harrison 

No American family has for a longer period maintained the 
highest reputation for ability and integrity than the Harrison 
family. 

Two Presidents of the United States, two mayors of the city 
of Chicago, congressmen, jurists, and many noted public char- 
acters are numbered among its members. 

By some historical writers it is claimed that the General 
Harrison, who won enduring fame as a leader during the time 
of Cromwell, is one of its members. 

The first of the American family located in Surrey County, 
Virginia, some time prior to 1640. 

His son, Benjamin, lived in that county from his birth in 
1645 to his death in 1712. His son, the second Benjamin, though 
he died at the age of thirty-seven, had acquired a large estate 
and was speaker of the House of Burgesses at the time of his 
death. His brother, Henry, was one of the Virginia judges. 

The third Benjamin took but little part in public affairs; 
was a member of the colonial legislature at one time ; devoted 
his attention to his farms, and accumulated one of the largest 



183 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

landed estates in Virginia. He married the daughter of a Mr. 
Carter, the King's surveyor. Two daughters lived to maturity, 
one of whom married Peyton Eandolph, first president of the 
Continental Congress, the other his brother William. 

The fourth Benjamin, the signer of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, was born at Berkeley, Virginia, in 1740, and edu- 
cated at the college of William and Mary. 

He was elected to the House of Burgesses before he arrived 
at the eligible age and soon attained such prominence that the 
British government offered him a seat in the executive coun- 
cil of the colony, but the estrangement that ended in the Revo- 
lution was then too far advanced to permit his accepting the 
honor. 

In 1764 he was one of the committee to prepare an address 
to the King and remonstrance to Parliament on the treatment 
of the colonies. 

He was sent to the Continental Congress in 1774, and re- 
mained by successive reflections until 1777, when he resigned. 

He was a man of infinite humor, large framed, athletic and 
stout. It is said that when Hancock modestly hesitated to take 
the president's chair in Congress, to which he had been elected, 
he lifted Hancock in his arms and seated him in the chair, say- 
ing: "We will show the British how little we care for them 
by making a Massachusetts man our president, whom she has 
excluded from pardon by public proclamation." 

His grim humor at the time of the signing of the Declara- 
tion of Independence was equal to that of Benjamin Franklin. 
Elbridge Gerry, who was very slender and of light weight, was 
standing by him when he said, as to the prospect of all of them 
being hung as traitors: "It will be over with me in a minute, 
but you will be kicking in the air for half an hour after I am 
gone." 

He was not an orator, but one of the reliable men of the 
Congress, who, while they never dazzled, never disappointed. 

He was chairman of the committees on foreign affairs and 
the Board of War ; and more frequently chairman of the com- 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 183 

mittee of the whole than any other member, being an excellent 
presiding officer. 

His fearless fairness is shown in this incident. The feel- 
ing against the Quakers was most intense ; a number were 
arrested as public enemies, when he defended them on the 
ground of their faith. 

Said one of their grateful leaders: ''Benjamin Harrison had 
talents to perceive the right and firmness enough to pursue it, 
however violently opposed." 

Upon his retiring from Congress he was elected to the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses and chosen speaker, in which office 
he was continued until 1782, when he was elected governor 
and twice thereafter reelected. 

He opposed the ratification of the Federal constitution be- 
fore the first ten amendments were made part of it. But when 
that was done by the Virginia convention called for that pur- 
pose, and of which he was a member, he ably resisted and suc- 
ceeded in preventing the movement of a number, who, like him, 
opposed it, but were preparing to carry their resentment to a 
hurtful extremity. 

His oldest son, Benjamin, was a prominent Richmond mer- 
chant ; his second, Carter Bassett, an eminent lawyer and mem- 
ber of Congress ; his third, William Henry, the ninth, his great- 
great-grandson, Benjamin, the twenty-third President of the 
United States. 

On the eve of being recalled by her admiring people to the 
governorship of Virginia, he died, April 24, 1791. 

Thomas Nelson, Jr. 

William Nelson was a successful merchant of York, Vir- 
ginia, who became a member and president of the executive 
council, and during the interim between the administrations of 
Lords Bottetourt and Dunmore, filled the place of governor 
and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the province. He 
was regarded as the ablest of the judges. 

His son, Thomas Nelson, Jr., was born at York, December 



184 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

26, 1738 ; was sent to England when he was fourteen, where he 
remained at school and college, graduating at Trinity College, 
and returning to Virginia in 1761. 

Inheriting a handsome estate, he led the life of the cultured 
and wealthy Virginia planter. 

In 1774 he entered the House of Burgesses, over which Pey- 
ton Randolph, first president of the Continental Congress, pre- 
sided. This house passed the resolutions against the Boston 
port bill, for which Lord Dunmore dissolved it. Nelson was 
one of the eighty-nine members who met the next day, organ- 
ized an independent legislature, declared the invasion of their 
rights unwarranted, and recommended the appointment of 
delegates to a general congress of the colonies. 

He was elected to the succeeding legislature in 1775, and 
was one of the boldest members in advocacy of organizing a 
military force, though it imperilled his estate that lay nearest, 
where the British were sure to attack, if war ensued. Of the 
two regiments raised in consequence, Patrick Henry was made 
colonel of the first, and Nelson of the second. This position he 
resigned upon being elected to the Continental Congress. There 
he was one of the earliest advocates for declaring independ- 
ence, and wrote to a Virginia friend : 

''Independence, confederation and foreign alliance are as 
formidable to some of the Congress, I fear a majority, as an 
apparition to a weak, enervated woman. "Would you think 
that we have some among us, who still expect honorable pro- 
posals from the administration. By heavens," he continues, 
his ardent feelings strongly excited by the subject, "by heav- 
ens, I am an infldel in politics, for I do not believe, were you to 
bid a thousand pounds per scruple for honor at the court of 
Britain, that you would get as many as would amount to an 
ounce. If terms should be proposed they will savour so much 
of despotism, that America cannot accept them. We are now 
carrying on a war and no war. They seize our property 
wherever they find it, either by land or sea; and we hesitate 
to retaliate, because we have a few friends in England who 
have ships. Away with such squeamishness, say I. What think 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 185 

you of the right reverend fathers in God, the bishops. One of 
them refused to ordain a young gentleman, who went from 
this country, because he was a rebellious American ; so that un- 
less we submit to parliamentary oppression, we shall not have 
the gospel of Christ preached among us, but let every man 
worship God under his own fig tree." 

Illness forced him to resign from Congress in 1777, but the 
threatened invasion of Virginia called him again into service, 
and he was made a brigadier general, like Washington, declin- 
ing all pay for his services. He was also at this time elected 
to the Virginia legislature, when he manfully opposed the pro- 
posal for the state to confiscate the debts due by citizens to 
British subjects. 

He was again elected to Congress in 1779, and again forced 
by ill health to resign. 

On the appeal of Congress for funds, he raised two million 
dollars on his own personal security, and ^ater a vanced the 
money to j^ay two regiments of '"irginia troops the money due 
them, whereby he wrecked his ample estate. He was the most 
popular military officer in the state, and did much to animate 
the courage and inspire the self-sacrificing heroism of her 
soldiers. 

In 1781 he succeeded Jefferson as governor, and on the com- 
ing of Lafayette yielded his military command to the gallant 
Frenchman, uniting the troops in harmony and discipline. 

He commanded the militia at the battle of Yorktown, and 
when he saw his troops were avoiding it, directed the bom- 
bardment of his own palatial home, which Cornwallis was sup- 
posed to occupy. 

In his general orders Washington wrote : 

"The general would be guilty of the highest ingratitude, a 
crime of which he hopes he shall never be accused, if he forgot 
to return his sincere acknowledgments to his excellency Gov- 
ernor Nelson for the succours which he received from him and 
the militia under his command, to whose activity, emulation 
and bravery, the highest praises are due. The magnitude of 



186 -HE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

the acquisition will be ample compensation for the difficulties 
and dangers which they met with so much firmness and 
patriotism. ' ' 

His health forced him to resign the governorship in No- 
vember, 1781. 

No sooner had he done so than he was assailed in the leg- 
islature for arbitrary conduct as governor in raising troops and 
impressing supplies without the consent of the council. His 
vindication was complete, his acts being legalized by unanimous 
vote of the legislature. He refused a seat in the National Con- 
stitutional Convention, and opposed the ratification of the Con- 
stitution by Virginia. 

Having aided in framing his state's constitution, served 
with its soldiers on the field of battle, and filled the highest 
office in its gift, on the return of peace, broken in health and 
fortune, he retired from public life, and died at the place of his 
birth, January 4, 1789. 

Says Sanderson : , 

"He descended into the grave honored and beloved; and 
alas ! of his once vast estates, that honor and love was almost 
all that he left behind him. He had spent a princely fortune 
in his country's service; his horses had been taken from the 
plough, and sent to drag the munitions of war; his granaries 
had been thrown open to a starving soldiery, and his ample 
purse had been drained to its last dollar, when the credit of 
Virginia could not bring a sixpence into her treasury. Yet it 
was the widow of this man who, beyond eighty years of age, 
blind, infirm and poor, had yet to learn whether republics can 
be grateful." 

J'rancis Lightfoot Lee 

Francis Lightfoot Lee, brother of Richard Henry Lee, was 
born in Stratford, Virginia, October 14, 1734, and died at 
Richmond, April 3, 1797. 

From 1768 to 1772 he was an influential member of the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, and from 1775 to 1779 of the Con- 
tinental Congress. He was active in framing the Articles of 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 187 

Confederation. He was a state senator after the Revolutionary- 
War, but declined all other public positions. 

He was a man of finished education and ample fortune, who 
led the life of the wealthy Virginia planter, and was the charm 
of every social circle in which he mingled. While possessed of 
good ability, he lacked the ambition of his illustrious brother 
and led a life of quiet ease and refinement. 

It is told of him that when the Federal Constitution was 
published, some of his countrymen, who had high regard for 
his opinions, asked him what he thought of it. He replied that 
he did not pretend to be a judge of these things then ; that he 
was old and did not read much, but there was one thing that 
satisfied him, and that was that General Washington was for 
it, and John Warden against it. The latter was a Scotch law- 
yer of some distinction, who bitterly opposed American Inde- 
pendence as well as the adoption of the Constitution. 

He left no children, and he and his wife died within a few 
days of each other. 

For Virginia 

Carter Braxton 

Carter Braxton was born at Newington, the splendid coun- 
try home of a wealthy planter, in King and Queen county, Vir- 
ginia, September 10, 1736. 

His ancestors on both sides were among the "first families" 
of the Old Dominion, and until advanced in years he lived the 
life of the affluent and aristocratic planter with all its lavish 
and elegant hospitality. 

He was educated at the College of William and Mary. In 
1757 he went to England and did not return to his native land 
until 1760. 

His father had been a member of the House of Burgesses, 
and to that body he was elected in 1761 ; was a warm sup- 
porter of Patrick Henry in 1765, when that great orator's cele- 
brated resolutions were passed, and continued an active mem- 
ber during all its stormy history until 1775, when, on the death 



188 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEE8 

of Peyton Randolph, president of the Continental Congress, he 
was sent as a delegate from Virginia, and signed the immortal 
Declaration of Independence. 

The first general assembly under the new Constitution paid 
him this high compliment : 

''Saturday, October 12th, 1776. 

"Resolved, unanimously, that the thanks of this house are 
justly due to Thomas Jefferson, and Carter Braxton, Esquires, 
for the diligence, ability, and integrity, with which they exe- 
cuted the important trust reposed in them as two of the dele- 
gates for this county in the general congress." 

He was returned to the Virginia legislature in 1777, and, 
excepting the years 1778 and 1782, was a member until the 
close of 1785. 

He was chairman of the committee on religion, and actively 
supported Jefferson's measure to establish religious freedom 
in Virginia, and took part in much of other important commit- 
tee work. 

In 1786 he was appointed a member of the Council and 
continued in that important office until the spring of 1791, at 
intervals thereafter being chosen to, and a member of the 
Council at the time of his death. 

In his later years he embarked in commercial enterprise, 
for which his lack of training and manner of life unfitted him, 
lost all he had, disastrously involved his kindred and friends, 
and died a broken-hearted man on October 10, 1797. 

For North Carolina 
William Hooper 

William Hooper, the son of a Scotch clergyman of the same 
name, who, graduating at Edinburgh, came to Boston, and was 
chosen pastor of Trinity Church, was born there June 17, 1742, 
and graduated at Harvard in 1760. 

He studied law under James Otis, whose zeal and eloquence 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 189 

in behalf of colonial rights made him historic, and followed the 
patriotic lead of Otis in behalf of his country. 

Soon after admission to the bar he removed to "Wilmington, 
North Carolina, when he married Miss Anne Clark, sister of 
General Thomas Clark, and who proved, as so many other 
wives of the revolution, a stimulus and aid to his patriotic 
efforts. 

He soon won prominence, and was sent to the general as- 
sembly, where he took such a leading part that he was elected 
to the Continental Congress in 1774, where he was placed on 
the committees to prepare a statement of the rights of the 
colonies, and to examine and report upon the statutes affecting 
the trade and manufactures of the colonies. 

Reelected in 1775, he was chairman, and prepared the ad- 
dress of the committee to the people of Jamaica. 

During the early part of 1776 he was recalled to North 
Carolina, where he prepared the forceful address of that colony 
to the people of Great Britain, returning to Congress in time 
to vote for the Declaration, and render useful service on the 
committee for regulating the postal service, the treasury, secret 
correspondence and admiralty courts. 

In 1777 he resigned and returned to aid his fellow patriots 
in his own beleaguered state. 

In 1786 Congress appointed him one of the judges of the 
court that met at Hartford to decide the dispute in regard to 
the territory claimed by Massachusetts and New York. 

After peace was concluded he exerted himself to prevent 
the persecution of the loyalists, and heal the wounds of the war. 

His health was always delicate. In 1787 he withdrew from 
professional and public life, and retired to Hillsborough, where 
he died in October, 1790, 

He was noted for literary accomplishment, rare conversa- 
tional charm, and his faith in the successful issue of the strug- 
gle for independence that never became depressed in the dark- 
est hours of the revolution. 



190 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

Joseph Hewes 

The voice of American liberty appealed too strongly to 
patriotic hearts for even the peaceful Quaker to resist it. 

The Quaker, General Nathaniel Greene, was second only to 
"Washington in military skill and achievement, and the Declara- 
tion of Independence, with the signatures of tjie devout of other 
denominations, carries that of the Quaker, Joseph Hewes. 

He was born at Kingston, New Jersey, in 1730, and edu- 
cated at Princeton, 

He became a prosperous merchant in Philadelphia, and in 
1760 removed to Edenton, North Carolina. 

There his success as a merchant, his hospitality and his 
deserved reputation for honesty gave him a good name — bet- 
ter than great riches. 

He was several times a member of the legislature, and in 
1774 was sent as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, 
and made a member of the committee to state the rights of the 
colonies. 

The North Carolina delegates were given the freest and 
boldest instructions from any colony; were authorized to make 
"any acts done by them, or consent given in behalf of this 
province, obligatory in honor upon every inhabitant thereof 
who is not an alien to his country's good, and an apostate to 
the liberties of America." 

They were, therefore, among the first and most outspoken 
in favor of independence. 

In order to bring pressure to bear by commercial England 
on political England in securing their rights, the people of 
every colony were asked to enter into an association agreeing 
not to import or use English goods, or export any American 
products to Great Britain. 

Says an historic writer: 

"The non-importation agreement thus recommended and 
determined to be adopted, was a very remarkable event in the 
annals of the revolution. It could only have been thought of 
by men having the most perfect confidence in the integrity and 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 191 

patriotism of the people, without whose universal and strict 
resolution to maintain it, such a measure would be palpably 
unavailing. A system of privation not enforced by any law, 
nor guarded with any penal sanctions, but resting entirely on 
the deep and general sense of wrongs inflicted, and of the 
necessity of a united effort to obtain redress — it evinced a 
steady resolution, a sober patriotism, and a generous sacrifice 
of selfish views to the common good, unequalled in the history 
of the world. 

"If any class of people more than the rest were entitled to 
particular praise for the patriotic ardor which induced them 
to join in this combination, it was unquestionably the mercan- 
tile part of the community, who sacrificed not only many of 
the comforts and enjoyments of life, but gave up also the 
very means of their subsistence, in relinquishing the importing 
trade to which they had been accustomed to devote their capi- 
tal and labor." 

Of this association, Mr. Hewes, who had grown to be ong of 
the leading merchants of North Carolina, was one of the most 
active members, to his own great financial detriment. 

As affairs assumed a more warlike aspect, the Quakers held 
a gisneral convention, in which Congress and the prospective 
revolution were unsparingly denomiced, and all Quakers 
directed to withhold aid and encouragement to such efforts. 
They constituted a numerous and influential part of the Penn- 
sylvania and New Jersey population. Hewes, at once, severed 
his connection with his ancestral sect, and never again united 
with them. 

He was one of the committee to prepare the Articles of 
Confederation; of the secret committee to provide ways and 
means to prosecute the war; and the naval committee. 

His business ability and experience made him one of the 
most serviceable members of these, especially the latter two 
committees. Eight vessels were equipped under his especial 
management, and he might be said to have been de facto Sec- 
retary of the Navy. 



192 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

He continued his life of business and patriotic activity in 
Congress until his death at Philadelphia, November 10, 1779. 

Says Sanderson : 

"Mr. Hewes possessed a prepossessing figure and counte- 
nance, with great emenity of manners and an unblemished 
reputation for probity and honor. He left a considerable for- 
tune, but no children to inherit it. 

"His death may be called untimely v^^hen we reflect on the 
brighter prospects that soon after opened on the country to 
whose happiness he devoted himself with so much zeal, pros- 
pects in which he would have found a cause of infinite grati- 
tude and joy; but in other respects his end was more seasona- 
ble than that of some of his compatriots who lived to endure 
old age, infirmity and want; he was taken in the meridian of 
his usefulness, but not before he had performed enough of 
service to this nation to entitle him to her enduring and grate- 
ful recollection." 

John Penn 

John Penn's career is another of the many proofs that 
where there is a will there is a way to conquer adversity and 
overcome obstacle. 

He was born in Caroline county, Virginia, May 17, 1741. 
Though an only child, his early education was sadly neglected. 
Two or three years at a country school completed his course. 

At the age of eighteen his father's death left him a mod- 
erate competence. 

He entered the office and home of his distinguished rela- 
tive, Edmund Pendleton, who, as president of the Virginia Con- 
vention to pass upon the adoption of the constitution, gave his 
powerful aid in its favor, and whose ability and learning, but 
for his feeble health, would have made of him more of an his- 
toric character. 

Penn made the splendid library of this accomplished man 
his college, and achieved a liberal education, as well as such 
proficiency in the law that he was admitted to the bar at the 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION I93 

age of twenty-one. Like Patrick Henry, he was a natural-born 
orator, and his success at the bar was immediate. 

In 1774 he removed to North Carolina, and achieved such 
prompt distinction that he was elected to the state legislature, 
and also to the Continental Congress in 1775, and reelected in 
1777, 1778 and 1779. 

When the British invasion of North Carolina was begun in 
1780, he was kept at home and given almost absolute power to 
raise troops and provide supplies for the defense. 

In 1784 he was selectel by Robert Morris as fiscal agent 
for the government for North Carolina, and receiver of taxes. 
This position, requiring the highest integrity, was peculiarly 
vexatious in requiring him to upbraid the state authorities for 
failure to do the state 's financial part to the distressed national 
authority. 

He resigned the burden when he realized that his patriotic 
labors would accomplish no results. 

When peace was restored he returned to the duties of pro- 
fessional life and the rebuilding of the losses in property he 
had suffered while in public service, dying in Greenville county. 
North Carolina, at the early age of forty-seven, in September, 
1788. 

Sanderson, in this tribute to him, leaves a useful lesson to 
the youth of America : 

**It is at least doubtful, whether mankind may not derive 
as much edification from examples like the present, as from 
the splendour of military exploits, or even from the discoveries 
of philosophical research. They extend their benefits to more 
individuals and excite more useful qualities, than a victory or 
the solution of a problem ; and they create a great number of 
citizens, unactuated by ambition, depending on their own in- 
dustry, and ready to serve their country from the best motives. 
They teach individuals instead of despairing of their talents, 
to search their minds for that divine spark, which may en- 
lighten them in efforts to make competence compatible with 
honesty, and patriotism with moderation; and they ascertain 



194 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

a fact of great importance to society — that in all efforts for the 
requirement or preservation of a free form of government, it is 
an error fatal to either end, and productive of the very evils 
intended to be removed, to suppose that mankind must be in- 
debted for liberty to the talents and services of a few." 

For South Carolina 
Edward Rutledge 

Ireland has contributed many an illustrious name to Ameri- 
can history; many useful and industrious citizens; many a 
hero in its wars, many a genial humorist to enliven with native 
wit, and profit with practical wisdom the country of his adop- 
tion. 

Dr. John Eutledge, an Irishman, emigrated to Charleston, 
South Carolina, in 1735. 

He there married Miss Sarah Hert, a lady of fortune, but 
far more, of rare personal charms of mind and person, who 
was noted in that cultured city for discretion, piety and 
wisdom. 

At the age of 26 she was left a widow with seven children. 
She proved one of the many fore-mothers to whom all honor 
is due. No Colonial mother with juster pride could point to 
her sons than Sarah Eutledge to her two, the eldest, John, who 
sat as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 
(and whose biographical sketch is hereafter given among the 
Framers of the Constitution), and the youngest, Edward, who 
was born in Charleston, November 23, 1749, and there died 
January 23, 1800. 

After a limited education he entered the office of his elder 
brother, then the most distinguished member of the Charleston 
bar. 

He completed his legal education at the Temple, London, 
England. There he made a special study of the great lawyers 
and orators, Dunning, Wedderburne, Thurlow, Mansfield, Cam- 
den and Chatham, to such good effect that, with Irish gift, he 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION I95 

could perfectly imitate their various styles in his mature years. 

He was admitted to the English bar, but begun his practice 
upon his return home in 1773. 

That his eminent success was immediate is shown by his 
state sending him to the Continental Congress the very next 
year, with that state's notable contribution of eloquence, wis- 
dom and talent to that splendid body of men. 

The debates of that Congress, lost through the secrecy im- 
posed upon its deliberations, give no record of his part, but his 
committee appointments evidence his high standing. 

With John Adams and Richard Henry Lee, he was placed 
on the committee to prepare the resolution of the Congress 
recommending the several provinces to establish permanent, 
instead of temporary state governments ; with Benjamin Frank- 
lin and John Adams on the committee to confer with Lord 
Howe on the proposals he was to make to settle the controversy 
between mother country and colonies ; the committeeman from 
his state to prepare the Articles of Confederation ; and a mem- 
ber of the first board of war. 

The conference with Lord Howe led to an incident that 
illustrates Franklin's cunning humor. Upon leaving his lord- 
ship sent the commissioners to New York in his own barge. 
As they approached the shore Franklin began to chink some 
gold and silver coin in his pants' pocket, and as they landed 
offered a handful with ostentatious carelessness to the sailors 
who had rowed the boat. The officer in command would not 
permit them to accept the money, and Franklin returned the 
coin to his pocket. His companion commissioners asked why 
he did this, and Franklin replied: "These people think we have 
not a farthing of hard money in the country. I thought I 
would convince them of their mistake. At the same time, I 
knew I risked nothing by the offer which their regulations and 
discipline would not permit them to accept." 

So he ate his cake and kept it, besides giving an instructive 
hint to the belittling British. 

He was continued in the Congress until forced by sickness 



196 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

to resign in 1779, and was the youngest signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

At the surrender of Charleston in 1780 he was made a pris- 
oner and confined at St. Augustine for nearly a year. 

His venerable mother was the victim of a persecution by the 
British during their occupation of Charleston that speaks 
highly for the talents of this, more than Spartan, American 
mother. The commandant ordered her removed from her 
country home, and confined to the limits of the city, upon the 
plea that much was to be apprehended from a woman like Mrs. 
Rutledge. 

He declined an appointment as justice of the United States 
Supreme Court, and never again appeared on the theatre of 
national public service, but was frequently a member of the 
legislature of his state, where he was usefully active. 

He opposed the increase and extension of slavery, and de- 
nounced it as an evil imposed upon us by the British slave 
trader. 

In 1798 he was elected governor, and died while holding 
this highest office in the gift of his state. 

He was twice married, first to Harriet, daughter of Henry 
Middleton, second president of the Continental Congress, by 
whom he had two children, a son and daughter; the second 
time to Miss Mary Shubrick, who survived him. 

He was above medium size, corpulent, and of florid com- 
plexion. 

His bald head fringed with snow-white hair gave him the 
appearance of being a much older man than he was. 

While accused of vanity, he was always plain and old fash- 
ioned in dress, democratic in habits, and as generous friend of 
and sympathizer with the poor as his state ever honored with 
high position. 

Thomas Heyward, Jr. 

Daniel Heyward, of St. Luke's Parish, South Carolina, by 
his own energy and ability had become one of the wealthiest 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 197 

planters in the province. There his son, Thomas, was born in 
1746. 

As was the custom with the wealthy South Carolinians, this 
son received the best education that the schools there would 
permit of, and was then entered at the Temple, London, to 
prepare for the bar. 

The people of the colonies regarded themselves as English- 
men, and those able to do so sent their children to the mother 
country to complete their education. Unfortunately, these 
young colonists were treated by their English associates with 
somewhat of supercilious contempt, as if they were aborigines, 
and such treatment tended to alienate them from the English 
people. Nothing so galls as the feelings unjustly wounded. 

After completing his studies young Heyward spent several 
years touring the continent and studying the customs and hab- 
its of European people. This gave him a practical knowledge 
of human nature not acquired in books, for travel is a splendid 
college. 

Returning to America in 1773 he married a Miss Mathews, 
of his native province, and entered upon the practice of his 
profession. 

He was elected to the first revolutionary assembly and by it 
honored by being placed upon the Council of Safety, and in 
1775 elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, in which 
he continued until 1778, when he was elected a judge of the 
civil and criminal courts of the new state government. The 
sentence in his court and subsequent execution of persons 
charged with treasonable correspondence with the British made 
him especially obnoxious to them. 

"While a judge he held a commission in the state militia and 
commanded a battalion of artillery at the battle of Beaufort 
under General Moultrie, in which battle he was wounded. His 
conduct of this battery at Beaufort and during the siege of 
Charleston was highly commended. Upon the fall of Charles- 
ton he was made a prisoner and confined at St. Augustine. 



198 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Upon his release from prison and return to South Carolina 
he resumed his position as judge, which he held until 1798. He 
was a member of the convention in 1790 to frame a constitu- 
tion for the state. 

He was despoiled of a large part of his estate when South 
Carolina was overrun by the British. 

In 1791 he retired from public life, and died at his birth- 
place, March 6, 1809. 

Thomas Lynch, Jr. 

An Austrian town was once so besieged that the inhabitants, 
in order to defeat the invader, subsisted for some time on a 
field of pulse, called Lince. Their desperate valor succeeded, 
and in gratitude they changed the name of the town, as well 
as that of their chief family, to Lince or Lintz. Thereafter a 
branch of that family removed to England, from thence to 
Ireland and took the name of Lynch, Jonack Lynch, one of 
the descendants of this family, and the great-grandfather of 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., came from Ireland to South Carolina 
shortly after the settlement of the colony. His son acquired 
large tracts of land along the Santee rivers, with the island, 
reclaimed the swamp lands, before that considered worthless, 
made of them the most valuable rice farms in the state, and 
left a princely estate to his son, Thomas. This son became one 
of the leading men of the province, was long a member of the 
provincial assembly and one of the delegates to the first Con- 
tinental Congress. He was not an orator, but was noted for 
the force of his clear and simple statements in argument and 
the honesty of his opinions. On one occasion the provincial 
assembly, while considering the great questions pressing upon 
the people just prior to the revolution, adjourned for two days 
to give him time to join in their deliberations, thereby paying a 
tribute higher than any complimentary resolution. 

Thomas Lynch, Jr., was' born on his father's plantation. 
Prince George's Parish, August 5, 1749. His mother was Eliza- 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION I99 

beth H. Alston, whose family stood equally liigh among the 
leaders of the province and the subsequent state. He was edu- 
cated at the school at Georgetown, South Carolina, at that 
time the leading educational institution of the province. He 
was then sent to England and graduated at the University of 
Cambridge. He then took a law course at the Temple, return- 
ing to South Carolina in 1772, after an absence of eight or nine 
years given to the culture of a natural, unusual ability. He 
was at once elected to the assembly of which his father was a 
member, and became one of the most distinguished members 
for eloquence and ability. The attachment between father 
and son, their mutual efforts, their cordial sympathy and sup- 
port was one of the most interesting features of the assembly 
of that day. 

In 1775 he entered the first South Sarolina regiment as a 
captain. His father, then in the Continental Congress, wished 
him to come on to Philadelphia, in order that he might obtain 
for his son a higher rank, but the son answered that his present 
commission was fully equal to his experience. 

Early in July, 1775, he went to North Carolina under Gen- 
eral Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, where they met with great 
success in raising troops for the Continental Army. His ex- 
posure in this service so impaired his constitution that he was 
an invalid for the rest of his life. 

The extreme illness of his father, disabling him from at- 
tending to his duties, compelled him to resign, an illness which 
subsequently terminated his useful life. The son, at the age 
of twenty-seven, was elected to fill the vacancy, and this 
terminated his military career, which he persisted in following 
despite his wretched condition of health. He remained in Con- 
gress until near the close of the year 1779, when his failing 
health compelled him to seek a different climate in the hope 
of its restoration. His devoted wife, formerly Miss Elizabeth 
Shubrick, sailed with him for France. The vessel was never 
heard of after embarcation. 



300 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

Arthur Middleton 

Aristocratic descent and abundant wealth had heroic rep- 
resentatives in the founding of our Republic on the corner- 
stone of manhood's equality. 

Edward Middleton, scion of an English family of rank and 
wealth, came to South Carolina in its early settlement, bought 
large tracts of land and became a wealthy planter. 

His son, Arthur, was a leader of the people against the 
autocratic rule of the proprietary governors, and when in 1719 
the South Carolina House of Commons formed themselves into 
a convention and revolted against the proprietary rule, was 
elected president of the colony. 

This resulted in the forfeiture of the proprietary charters 
and the colony becoming a royal province. 

His son, Henry, inherited the spirit as well as fortune of 
his famous father ; when the Congress of 1774 was called, was 
sent with John Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch 
and Edward Rutledge, as delegates from South Carolina, and 
succeeded John Hancock as president of the Continental Con- 
gress. 

His son, Arthur, one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, was born at Middleton place, near the Ashley 
river, South Carolina, June 26, 1742. His mother, a Miss 
Williams, was the only child of a wealthy planter. 

At an early age he was sent to England to be educated, and 
graduated at Cambridge University at the age of twenty-two. 

His course in college was remarkable in his freedom from 
the vices of young men of wealth and his studious habits. 

After graduation he traveled over Great Britain and spent 
two years in Europe, much of the time in the art galleries of 
Rome. 

He attained considerable proficiency in painting, sculpture 
and architecture. 

Returning to South Carolina, he married, returned to Eng- 
land with his wife, devoting several years to foreign travel, 
and again returned to his native land in 1773. 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 201 

Notwithstanding his education and long residence in Eng- 
land, and the fact that in event of war he would suffer large 
loss in property, he followed the footsteps of his father, and 
staked his life, his fortune and his sacred honor in behalf of 
the people of his native land. 

With Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, William Henry Dray- 
ton, William Gibbes and Edward Weyman, he was, in 1774, ap- 
pointed a member of the first secret committee to prepare the 
colony for its part in common colonial struggle, and later by 
the Provincial Congress one of the committee of thirteen, de- 
nominated the Council of Safety, under which a military force 
was organized for defense of the colony. 

Though the royal governor had married a near relative of 
his wife, Arthur Middleton proposed the resolution that he 
be at once taken into custody. 

In 1776 he was chosen as one of the committee of eleven 
to frame a constitution for the colony, and soon thereafter 
sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress. 

There he formed an intimate friendship with John Hancock, 
their families occupying a joint temporary home. 

Returning to South Carolina, he Avas, much to his surprise, 
elected governor by the legislature, but not favoring the con- 
stitution that had been adopted, declined the position. His 
independence in no way detracted from his popularity. 

In the British invasions in 1779 his estate was despoiled, his 
valuable paintings carried off or mutilated, and his library 
wantonly destroyed. 

He shared the siege of Charleston in 1780, and was one of 
the prisoners, on its fall, to suffer the wrongs of those con- 
fined at St. Augustine. 

In 1781 and 1782 he was again returned to the Congress, 
and though his family and estate were in the hands of the 
British, proposed a resolution denouncing the barbarities of 
Lord Cornwallis and providing that in event of his capture 
he should not be included in any exchange of prisoners. 

After the close of hostilities he served in his state's legis- 



202 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

lature, and gave his time to the rebuilding of his wrecked 
estate- 
He was not among the noted orators of his day, but a re- 
fined, earnest, cultured gentleman, as fully devoted as the 
famous to the cause of American liberty. 

He died at his birthplace in his forty-sixth year, January 1, 
1788, leaving two sons and six daughters. 

His accomplished wife was left with ample means, and did 
a mother's noble part by his children. 

His oldest son, Henry Middleton, became governor of 
South Carolina, served several years in the United States Con- 
gress and as minister of the United States to Russia. 

To use the language of a writer of the times, he possessed 
"the plainest manners with the most refined taste — great 
reading, and knowledge of the world, concealed under the re- 
serve of the mildest and most modest nature — a complete 
philanthropist ; but the firmest patriot — cool, steady and un- 
moved, at the general wreck of property and fortune, as far 
as he was personally concerned, but with a heart melting for 
the sufferings and woes of others — a model of private worth 
and public virtue ; a good citizen, a good father, and an ex- 
emplary husband; accomplished in letters, in the sciences, and 
fine arts ; well acquainted with the manners of the courts of 
Europe, whence he has transplanted to his country nothing but 
their embellishments and virtues," 

For Georgia 
Button Gwinnett 

Button Gwinnett was born in England in 1732 ; was highly 
educated; and became a merchant in Bristol. 

He came to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1770, and en- 
gaged in business there for two years, thence removing to 
St. Catherine's Island, Georgia, where he became an extensive 
farmer. 

An intimate friendship with Dr. Lyman Hall made him 



THE SIGNEES OF THE DECLARATION 303 

lend a ready ear to that patriot's presentation o^ the colonies' 
cause, and he was chosen one of Georgia 's Council of Safety. 

He entered the Continental Congress in May, 1776, and 
was reelected for the ensuing year; was one of the committee 
to prepare the Articles of Confederation ; was a member of and 
took an active part in the convention to frame a constitution 
for Georgia in 1777; and upon the death of Gov. Bullock 
became president of the provincial council, and commander- 
in-chief of the Georgia troops. 

He was defeated by General Lackland Mcintosh in his 
candidacy for brigadier general of the Georgia troops, and 
also for the governorship. These events evoked the enmity 
that cost him his life. He challenged Mcintosh, and in the 
duel that followed both were wounded, Gwinnett mortally. 

He died May 27, 1777, leaving a large family, none of whom 
long survived him. He was buried at Savannah, Georgia, but 
when that state in grateful memory of these heroes erected 
at Augusta, Georgia, a monument, and placed beneath it the 
remains of Lyman Hall and George "Walton, it was found that 
the location of his grave could not be ascertained, and in 
some unknown spot his ashes honor the Savannah cemetery. 

L5rman Hall 

Dr. Lyman Hall was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, 
April 12, 1724, and died in Augusta, Georgia, October 19, 1790. 

Having received a classical education at Yale College, where 
he graduated in 1747, and qualified himself for the practice of 
medicine, he married, and in 1752 removed to Dorchester, 
South Carolina. During the same year, with some forty fami- 
lies originally from New England, he removed to Georgia and 
located at Sunbury. 

The Parish of St. John, wherein he lived, was more strenu- 
ous in its resistance to the measures of the British ministry 
than the other portions of Georgia, and endeavored to separate 
therefrom and unite with South Carolina. 

While extolling their patriotism, the committee of South 



204 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMEES 

Carolina to which the proposition was submitted advised 
against this movement. 

Thereupon the people of St, John Parish in 1775 unani- 
mously elected Hall to represent them in the Continental Con- 
gress. 

In honor of its action, when the Parish became a county 
under the Georgia constitution in 1777 it was named Liberty, 
and at the same time the other counties were named Chatham, 
Effingham, Burke, Richmond, "Wilkes, Glynn and Camden in 
honor of the English statesmen who defended colonial rights 
in Parliament. 

Later in 1775 the rest of Georgia followed the heroic ex- 
ample of St. John Parish and sent Archibald Bullock, an 
ancestor of President Theodore Roosevelt, John Houstoun, the 
Rev. Dr. Zubly, Noble "Wimberly Jones, and Lyman Hall as 
delegates of the state to the congress, only three of whom 
attended it. 

In February, 1776, Messrs. Hall, Houstoun, Bullock, George 
Walton and Button Gwinnett were elected representatives. 
Mr. Bullock having been elected president of the provincial 
council, and Mr. Houston directed to return on public busi- 
ness, left the other three representatives who signed the 
Declaration of Independence in behalf of Georgia. 

Mr. Hall was reelected until 1780. 

When the British overran Georgia Mr. Hall removed his 
family to the north, and all his property was confiscated by 
the "Loyalist" government. 

In 1782 he returned to Georgia and was elected governor 
of the state in 1783, retiring to private life on the expiration 
of his term. 

He was a tall and well proportioned man; not an orator, 
but of pleasing and refined address; of great decision of 
character and firmness of purpose ; enthusiastic, yet discreet, 
and peculiarly fitted to grapple with the odds against inde- 
pendence that existed in Georgia by reason of it being overrun 
by the British and under their domination. 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLAEATION 205 

George Walton 

George Walton was not of the cavaliers known as founders 
of the first families of Virginia, where, in Prince Edward 
County he was born in 1740. 

It is not known that he ever attended a school. 

In early youth he was apprenticed to a carpenter, who 
would not allow him even a candle to read by, and drove him 
to the ha'rd lot of a child laborer. By the light of pine knot 
fires he pursued his studies, and at the end of his apprentice- 
ship had, not only an honorable trade, but a well stored mind. 
He then undertook the ambitious study of the law. The law- 
yers under whom he had studied being opposed to the colony's 
ideas of greater latitude in self-government, in which he 
shared, he left the scenes of his humble birth and labors and 
in 1769 removed to Georgia. There he speedily rose to promi- 
nence, and with Noble W. Jones, Archibald Bullock and John 
Houstoun, published the following call for the first meeting in 
Savannah to make common cause with the colonies. 

"The critical situation to which the British colonies in 
America are likely to be reduced, from the alarming and arbi- 
trary impositions of the late acts of the British parliament, 
respecting the town of Boston, as well as the acts at present, 
that extend to the raising of a perpetual revenue, without the 
consent of the people or their representatives, is considered 
as an object extremely important at this critical juncture; 
and particularly calculated to deprive the American subjects 
of their constitutional rights and liberties, as a part of the 
British empire. It is therefore requested, that all persons 
within the limits of this province do attend at the Liberty Pole 
at Tondee's tavern in Savannah, on "Wednesday the twenty- 
seventh instant (July, 1774), in order that the said matters 
may be taken under consideration, and such other constitu- 
tional measures pursued, as may then appear to be most 
eligible." 

At this meeting a heated debate took place between those 
known as loyalists, and those favoring the cause of the colon- 



206 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMEES 

ists, in which he took a distinguished part, and was put on the 
committee to correspond with the other parishes in the state, 
and secure their support. 

At a second meeting in 1775 he ably advocated joining with 
the other colonies, was yet with a minority, but undismayed 
kept up the unequal battle, and in 1776 was sent by his 
fellow-patriots to the Continental Congress. There, with 
Robert Morris and George Clymer, he was put on the important 
committee to attend to the colonial affairs of Congress while 
it retired from Philadelphia, and handle its funds in the public 
service. 

He was continued in the Congress by six successive elections 
until 1781, serving on the treasury board, marine, and other 
committees. 

In 1778 he commanded a battalion in the battle at Savannah, 
was wounded, taken prisoner, and confined at Sunbury until 
exchanged the following year, when he was elected governor, 
and again elected governor in 1789. Subsequently he was 
elected Chief Justice. He was elected a delegate to the 
National Constitutional Convention, but official duties pre- 
vented his attending it. 

This carpenter's apprentice, by sheer force of his own 
indomitable energy and developed ability was six times elected 
to congress; twice governor; once United States Senator; four 
times judge of the Superior Court, which office he held for 
fifteen years and at the time of his death ; commissioner of 
the United States to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee 
Indians ; and many times a member of the Georgia legislature. 

The wrangles among themselves in Georgia on the part of 
the American adherents, and the large number of British sup- 
porters made his part one of great delicacy and difficulty. 
He was bitterly and unjustly assailed, but came out triumphant 
on the false charges pressed against him. He was a firm friend ; 
an uncompromising enemy; accomplished in satire and bitter 
in invective. His sense of justice knew no fear and he "hewed 
to the line, let the chips fall where they may." 



THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION 207 

In severe affliction he was a constant student, saying that 
for every ill ''a book was the best remedy." 

He married Miss Dorothea Camber, and their only child, a 
son, was Secretary of the state of Florida under President 
Jackson. 

He was a man of abstemious habits and plain living. On 
February 2, 1804, says Sanderson, "He closed his useful and 
laborious life in Augusta, leaving in the memory of his actions 
and his accomplishments, a lasting monument of his worth and 
rich legacy to his country." 




CHAPTER XI 

THE CONFEDEEATION 

|HE motion of Richard Henry Lee, on June 7, 1776, 
was not only for a committee to prepare a declara- 
tion of independence, but for a second committee 
whose work should be: ''A plan of confederation, 
to be prepared and transmitted to the respective colonies for 
their consideration and approbation." On the same day that 
the committee was appointed to draft the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, a committee, composed of one member from each 
state, was appointed to draft a form of compact, or confedera- 
tion, for the states. This committee consisted of the following : 

John Dickinson, Pennsylvania, Chairman. 
Josiah Bartlett, New Hampshire. 
Eoger Sherman, Connecticut. 
Robert R. Livingston, New York. 
Thomas McKean, Delaware. 
Thomas Nelson, Virginia. 
Edward Eutledge, South Carolina. 
Samuel Adams, Massachusetts. 
Stephen Hopkins, Rhode Island. 
Francis Hopkinson, New Jersey. 
Thomas Stone, Maryland. 
Joseph Hewes, North Carolina. 
Button Gwinnett, Georgia. 

This committee presented its report on July 12, 1776. It 
was debated until August 20th, was taken up for reconsidera- 
tion April 8, 1777, and, after numerous amendments, on No- 
vember 15, 1777, the ''Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union between the States" were adopted, and the confederacy 
named "The United States of America." That name, however, 

208 



THE CONFEDERATION -509 

by resolution of the congress had since September 9, 1776, been 
used in all official documents instead of "United Colonies." 

These articles were not ratified by all the states until 
January 30, 1781, and were not announced by the congress 
until March 1, 1781. It was thus nearly five years after their 
proposal that they became effective. They inaugurated a force- 
less government, the like of which was unknown in all history. 
They gave a mere transient league to the states — a headless 
confederacy. The confederacy had no executive. The presi- 
dent of the congress had neither veto nor power of appoint- 
ment, could serve only one year in each three years and was 
simply the presiding officer of a great debating society. 

The articles provided for no judiciary and no judicial power 
save in the partitioning of maritime prizes. Executive, legisla- 
tive, and judicial powers were all jumbled in confusion and 
given to this one house, or body. There were neither begin- 
nings, limits, nor boundaries to any of the supposed powers, 
separating them from each other. The congress could call for 
an army and navy, but had no means to sustain either, no 
power to compel the organization of a single company, or 
ability to dictate the building of a single boat. No common 
fund existed to pay one of its members. They were supported 
solely by their respective states, which were each empowered 
to send from two to seven delegates, as they saw fit, and to 
recall them at any time. No matter how many or how few 
were sent, each state had but one vote, and a tie in the state 
delegation lost that vote. The limiting of the time a member 
could serve to three years out of every six carried away the 
competent members at the very time that their experience 
made them most useful. 

The articles imposed national d^^ties upon the congress they 
created, but left that congress destitute of every element of 
power to enforce their performance. No amendment to these 
articles could be made except by unanimous consent of all the 
states. The congress could regulate the alloy to be used in the 
coinage of money and could authorize the coinage of money. 



310 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

but each state could coin money also. The articles left each 
state to establish such tariff on the importation of foreign 
goods as it saw fit. They did not mention or provide for the 
people from beginning to end. They dealt, exclusively, with 
the states. The people whom the articles disregarded and over 
whom they had no power universally despised them. If any 
state failed to furnish the men or the money to do its share of 
the government's work, that ended it; there was no power to 
compel the state to do its part. The congress could borrow 
money of any power or person who was credulous enough to 
loan to a government without a treasury, without a foot of 
property, without the taxing power to compel the raising of 
resources to make good its promises of payment. The congress 
could neither impeach nor discipline its president, nor any 
member of the congress ; it could not punish the treason of any 
officer of its army. Unless nine out of the thirteen states 
agreed, the congress could not enact a law; engage in war; 
coin money or regulate the value thereof; determine the sums 
necessary to be raised for the common defense and general 
welfare of the country; decide what troops were to be raised, 
or navy provided; or appoint a commander-in-chief for its 
army. 

The congress could decide disputes between the states, but 
its decision was barren as it had no power to enforce it. The 
case was just as if a court could give a judgment in a suit, 
but could issue no writ of execution to enforce it. All the 
congress could pledge for any obligation was the public faith, 
but it neither asked nor received authority from the public to 
which it gave no recognition, and whose faith it pledged. Con- 
sequently, that public responded in kind, to the ruin of the 
government's creditors and the shame of the country. 

The articles solemnly enumerated all the duties, outside of 
executive and judicial, that a government should perform and 
the powers it should exercise, but they gave the government 
no compulsory authority to enable it to vitalize these principles 
into action. 



THE CONFEDERATION 211 

These Articles of Confederation made the most stupendous 
dummy that ever masqueraded as a national power in the 
history of government; the merest subterfuge for a national 
government, that held the states together solely by the cohesive 
power of a common peril, and a patriotism that stands without 
a parallel. 

When independence was accomplished, the evils of the 
confederation plan were aggravated and its utter inadequacy 
more and more apparent. With the government burdened with 
debt, with its soldiers clamoring for their pay, with its creditors 
pressing their just claims with increasing urgency and anxiety, 
with the diverse laws of the different states as to imports and 
commerce paralyzing business, naturally discontent rapidly de- 
veloped, until there was imminent danger of thirteen hostile 
nations being created out of the hostility to one. 

No period of American history, colonial or revolutionary, 
presents so dismal a retrospect as the eight years of the con- 
federation's existence. The attendance of members of con- 
gress grew less and less, and ofttimes barely a quorum could be 
convened to attest to its feeble existence — seldom more than 
twenty-five members were present. Seven states, represented 
by twenty delegates, saw Washington close his career of mili- 
tary glory by resigning, and but twenty-three members, from 
eleven states, could be mustered to vote for the ratification of 
the treaty that ended the seven years of war and made inde- 
pendence an accomplished fact. 

Among the last entries in the journal of Charles Thompson, 
permanent secretary, was: "Tuesday, October 21, 1788. From 
the day above mentioned, to the 1st of November, there at- 
tended, occasionally, from New Hampshire, et cetera, many 
persons from different states. From November 3d to January 
1st, 1789, only six persons attended altogether. On that day, 
Reed, of Pennsylvania, and Bramwell, of South Carolina, were 
present; and after that only one delegate was present (each 
time a different one), on nine different days." The last record 
was: ''March 2d, 1789, Mr. Philip Pell, from New York." 



212 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

The congress wandered from place to place, from Philadel- 
phia, Trenton, Lancaster, back to Philadelphia, where a mob 
of exasperated, unpaid soldiers insulted its authority, and com- 
pelled it to flee. It was becoming the sport and jest of all. 
To recommend and run was the chief characteristic that the wits 
of the period applied to this shadow of a representation of an 
independent people. Neither sigh nor ceremony marked its 
funeral end. Not a mourner voiced his grief that it was gone 
forever. Yet its spirit of state supremacy stalked the country 
for three-quarters of a century, required the mailed hand of the 
intrepid Jackson to throttle it, and was only exorcised at last 
by the blood of hundreds of thousands in internecine strife 
under the leadership of that gentle, tender-hearted martyr 
whose ringing appeal has at last been realized: "We are not 
enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas- 
sion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affec- 
tion. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every 
battle-field and patriot's grave, to every living heart and 
hearth-stone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus 
of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by 
the better angels of our nature." 

Yet, the congress well served a high purpose and taught 
mankind a lesson never to be forgotten. There is no lesson 
like an object-lesson — no teacher like experience. The horrors 
of that congress 's rule, denounced by every patriot of its time, 
should be known to-day by every American citizen. Its 
appalling miseries and dangers, the degradations incident to 
a mere league or confederacy, should be familiar to all, so that 
every American will realize the value of a sovereign union 
and will cherish it as the sole preserver of the liberties of the 
people and of the prosperity and security that is to-day guaran- 
teed throughout our land. 

Nor should the people of this day, guided by the light of 
the experience of our own country and of other countries that 
have followed in our wake, forget the darkness in which our 
fathers groped as to the governmental problems they sought 



THE CONFEDERATION 213 

to solve. Our fathers had none of the countless guides to con- 
stitutional government of and by the people that now exist. 
The Articles of Confederation were the first step of an infant 
republic. Complete unification was out of the question. The 
sovereignty of the states, complete and unquestioned, was a 
condition that had to exist until experience taught the needed 
lesson. It was the best, the only, compact possible — a natural, 
salutary, and necessary part of national evolution. 

In the march of humanity, progress is slow; missteps and 
backward steps, in national as in individual life, are the part 
of our fallibility. The most lasting and truthful lessons come 
from the most crushing defeats, from the crudest mistakes. 
The primary school of the confederation started the public 
study of government. Its awful lessons were living realities 
that could not be forgotten, teaching the inestimable value of 
a strong, virile, energetic unity, yet one that leaves to each 
locality, or state, its untrammelled individual or local develop- 
ment. The high school came in the formation of the constitu- 
tion and life thereunder. Now, under the interpreting pro- 
fessorship of our exalted supreme court, we are in the college 
of our constitutional education. The day of graduation awaits 
the distant ages when the wear and tear, the stress and strain, 
of the great issues and experiences to come under greater de- 
velopment shall give more enlightened, more comprehensive, 
broader views of the express and implied powers of that match- 
less instrument for which the Articles of Confederation paved 
the way — our constitution — whose eternal mission is: "To 
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, provide for the common defense, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity;" and whose 
yet higher mission is the leading all mankind to the same God- 
ordained destiny. 




CHAPTER XII 

THE EEVOLUTION 

^VEN a glance at the battles of the Revolution is 
beyond the province of this book. It attempts to 
deal with the fundamental law, not the founding 
war of the nation. The history of those seven years 
is and always will be hallowed in the American heart. This 
nation of unequaled wealth, of unsurpassed intelligence, of 
unparalleled progress, points to no prouder picture than the 
"ragged regimentals" of the Revolutionary army. In the 
blood-stained snow, where shoeless feet trod the weary march, 
it sees the colors that make "Old Glory" thrill every heart. 
Every state is crowded with counties, every city with streets 
that perpetuate the names of its immortal heroes, who staked 
their lives for freedom. In reverent homage our people bare 
their heads before the countless monuments telling in mute, 
yet eloquent, eulogy the valor of the valiant dead, while "on 
Fame's eternal camping-ground their silent tents are spread." 
General Marion, regaling the sleek, well-fed British general 
on the full contents of a commissary that included only baked 
potatoes ; the Quaker soldier, Greene, second only to Washing- 
ton as a commander, coming in the drizzling darkness to the 
home of Elizabeth Steele, with the greeting to her: "Yes, I 
am General Nathaniel Greene, cold, wet, hungry, and penni- 
less," and this heroine handing him with glad devotion the 
pittance of her hoarded silver ; the countless privations of the 
poverty-burdened ranks that faced a well-fed, well-clad, well- 
accoutred foe on every field; Lexington and Bunker Hill, 
Trenton, Brandywine, Yorktown, and the ice-filled Delaware, 
across which benumbed fingers pulled the laboring oars to 
brave the unequal fight ; Washington kneeling under the snow-- 

214 



THE EE VOLUTION 215 

laden trees at the midnight hour, pouring out his prayer to 
the God of battles — all are pictures that fill up the galleries 
of America's glory. 

Said that son of France, Lafayette, whose abiding home 
is in the heart of every American since his day : ' ' No European 
army would suffer the tenth part of what the Americans suf- 
fer. It takes citizens to support hunger, nakedness, toil, and 
the total want of pay, which constitutes the condition of our 
soldiers, the hardiest, the most patient to be found in the 
world." 

Washington, in a letter to the secretary of war, speaking 
of the desperate straits of his men, said they had "suffered 
everything which human nature is capable of enduring this 
side of death," adding: "I wish not to heighten the shades 
of the picture, so far as the real life would justify me in doing, 
or I would give anecdotes of patriotism and distress which 
have scarcely ever been paralleled, never surpassed, in the 
history of mankind." History, as it does of all Washington 
said, sets the seal of truth on this tribute. 

Despite every adverse condition, the skill of officers of 
dauntless courage, the valor of the "men behind the guns" and 
the self-sacrifice and devotion of all turned defeat into vic- 
tory. At last came Great Britain's acknowledgment that her 
trampled-upon colonies were free and independent, and a new 
nation had been born into the family of governments. The 
prolonged agonies of our armies, their unrequited sufferings, 
the death, devastation, and untold hardships that marked the 
land from end to end, the commercial and business afflictions 
that weighed it down — all could have been greatly lessened 
and shortened had such a compact constitutional union as now 
exists bound the colonies together. That lesson the blood of 
the Revolution writes for the patriotic intelligence of all 
times. 




CHAPTER XIII 

GEOEGE WASHINGTON 

|0W often it is that the chief qualities that achieve 
greatness are lost sight of in the contemplation of 
other honorable attributes that adorn the objects 
of the world's adulation. Washington's truthful- 
ness and goodness, his sincere and unaffected piety, his spot- 
less purity, his absolute unselfishness, have encrowned his his- 
toric character with a halo, that, in its glorified radiance, 
diverts the view from his extraordinary, practical intellectual- 
ity. He is idealized as the exemplar of the best moral virtues 
that grace and strengthen mankind. Nor is this amiss. The 
influence of these moral lessons of his life has reached the 
inner beings of countless American youths, and lifted them 
into nobler paths. 

Wherever that greatest of leaders pointed or led the way, 
no American of his day feared, nor should any American of 
any future day fear, to follow him. His insight into what was 
best for his country, not only for that day, but for all time, 
subsequent history shows was equal to inspiration, and justifies 
the belief that One greater than he made him the instrument 
of the Ruler of All for the betterment of the human race. 

But in the grateful memory of his noble attributes of heart 
and of his lofty moral character, his countrymen have lost 
sight of his statesmanship. Those qualities that enabled him 
to safely pilot our Ship of State over an unknown and chart- 
less sea, and anchor it in the harbor of enduring nationality, 
should be better known and should be part of the educational 
equipment of every citizen. 

Serving without salary as commander-in-chief, he stood 
between the army he loved with a passionate devotion, and 

216 



GEOEGE WASHINGTON 217 

his equally beloved country, when that neglected, unpaid, out- 
raged army was about to turn its guns upon an ungrateful 
public, and hurl the country from revolution into anarchy. 

He never sought position, or campaigned for place. He 
became a member of the Constitutional Convention after every 
effort to escape the honor had been made by him in vain, and 
in response to the universal call, not only of the people of his 
native state, but of the whole country. His presidency of that 
convention, his signature to its letters to the congress, the fact 
that he was certain to be unanimously called to the first presi- 
dency of the new nation — all had as much to do with the 
adoption of the constitution as the arguments of its advocates 
combined. He accepted the first presidency of the United 
States at the same unanimous call, from a sense of duty and 
not to serve selfish ambition. He might have easily retained 
that exalted place for life by unanimous reelection. But being 
given, without seeking, every position he'ever filled, he volun- 
tarily and to the regret of his countrymen left these places of 
highest honor. Leaving no direct descendant to divide his 
love, his affection was centered upon the people of his country, 
to whom he devoted a life full of danger and arduous, self- 
sacrificing labor. Well may he be called the ** Father of his 
Country. ' ' 

Washington bitterly realized how his plans had been baffled, 
and his difficulty added to by the inadequate support of an 
impotent central government. He knew where its inefficiency 
had caused the prolongation of the revolutionary struggle and 
the increased effusion of precious blood. He had seen the 
suicidal injury of sectional jealousies, and realized full well 
the baseless fears born of sectional prejudices. He had been 
intimately acquainted with the men of every section, and 
knew that one common kinship of patriotic devotion animated 
all alike. He knew that liberty had an abiding place in every 
state; that the tyranny which had throttled the happiness and 
progress of the colonies would never find lodgment in the 
heads and hearts of any man or assemblage of men who should 



318 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS I'EAMEES 

direct the destinies of this Union. He knew the inspiration 
of prominence and place to lofty patriotism. He knew the 
American spirit of fair play would in the end appeal to a 
united people, and make secure the rights of every citizen in 
every corner of this country. He knew the value of public 
honor in the eyes of the world, and how the example of na- 
tional and state integrity would impress itself upon the indi- 
vidual. He knew that an honest government would make 
honest people ; that where the nation kept its word, the people 
would keep theirs. 

Washington knew and predicted this nation's proud place 
among the nations of the earth once nationality was achieved. 
With prophetic eye, he foresaw the estrangements that local 
interests would engender and the antagonisms that ambition 
would foment among the separate states. He foresaw that the 
aims and interests of monarchies and despotisms would lead to 
intrigue and entanglement, attempted by them to accomplish 
the wrecking of what force had been unable to destroy. He 
knew that man's self-government hung upon the success or 
failure of the undertaking here. Washington saw that the 
independence won by united effort must be preserved by the 
continuance of that unity. He saw that the power to preserve 
that which was won must be not only central, but sovereign 
and supreme. He saw that it must act with the speed and 
energy of a unit, and that its decrees must not await confirma- 
tion, but must be clothed with absolute authority. Yet he 
also realized that the diversified local interests and predilec- 
tions, the domestic affairs of the different states ought to suffer 
no intrusion by the national authority. 

As the nation was without an executive head, Washington 's 
position as commander-in-chief of the American armies was 
the most exalted, the most authoritative in the country. He 
knew full well the glamour as well as the real force of such a 
station, when crowned with the prestige of complete success. 
When he was about to relinquish that position, to bid what 



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GEORGE WASHINGTON 219 

promised to be a final farewell to the highest place known to 
his people and to return to the rank of plain citizen, he utilized 
the strategic opportunity for great good by addressing to the 
governors of the states a farewell address, the now forgotten 
argument and advocate for, if not promise and prophecy of, 
our national unity and national constitution.^ 

The long disregard of Washington's advice by his country- 
men stung him to the quick, and when he was importuned 
to become a delegate to the constitutional convention, it pro- 
voked him into the only personal complaint he ever uttered 
against his countrymen, yet in that advice he sowed the seed 
that, after years of neglect, sprouted, and grew, and bore the 
fruit of a constitutional republic, a perpetual union. That 
address stamps him, not only as the most sagacious, resource- 
ful soldier, but also as the ablest, most far-sighted statesman 
of his day.^ 

In his address to congress, resigning his commission, Wash- 
ington concluded: "Having now finished the work assigned 
me, I retire from the great theater of action, and bidding an 
affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders 
I have so long acted, I hereby offer my commission, and take 
my leave of all the employments of public life." 

To this, Thomas Mifflin, president of the congress, who had 
been accused of being among those who had tried to effect 
the removal of Washington from the supreme command, replied 
in this historic and prophetic address : 

"The United States, in Congress assembled, receive with 
emotions too affecting for utterance the solemn resignation of 
the authority under which you have led their troops with 
success through a perilous and doubtful war. Called upon 
by your country to defend its invaded rights, you accepted the 
sacred charge before it had formed alliances, and while it was 
without friends or a government to support you. You have 
conducted the great military contest with wisdom and forti- 
tude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil power through 



* Appendix, pages 579-587. 






330 " THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

all disasters and changes. You have by the love and confidence 
of your fellow citizens, enabled them to display their martial 
genius, and transmit their fame to posterity. You have pre- 
served till these United States, aided by a magnanimous king 
and nation, under a just Providence, to close the war in free- 
dom, safety, and independence, on which happy event we sin- 
cerely join you in congratulation. Having defended the 
standard of liberty in the new world; having taught a lesson 
useful to those who inflict and to those who feel oppression, 
you retire from the great theater of action with the blessings 
of your fellow citizens ; but the glory of your virtues will not 
terminate with your military command — it will continue to 
animate remotest ages." 

Having resigned his commission, "Washington returned to 
his farm, there intending to pass the remainder of his life as a 
plain American citizen. Followed by the gratitude, the confi- 
dence, the honor of his people, it was impossible for him to 
escape their constant attention. As time passed, the conse- 
quences of his unheeded suggestions began to develop, and the 
anxieties of the leading patriots of the day made them turn to 
him for help. The country was adrift, its congress commanded 
neither confidence nor respect. It was slimly attended, often 
without a quorum and unable to put one recommendation in 
force. The country, in fact, was rapidly approaching the day 
when the end would be universal confusion, if not internecine 
strife. Commerce and agriculture, by the vexatious laws of 
the several states, were being forced into a worse condition 
than before the revolution. The reaction was at hand, and 
thousands, regretful of success, were ready to return to the 
rule of a monarchy powerful enough to give some sort of 
stability, some sort of security. 

Patrick Henry said of the first Continental Congress, com- 
posed of the flower of the country's character, conscience, 
and ability: "If you speak of solid information and sound 
judgment, Washington is unquestionably the greatest man of 
them all." 



G'EOEGE WASHINGTON 221 

In this critical hour, that information and judgment, 
ripened and enlarged by the intervening events of which he 
was the central figure, again forced Washington to the front, 
and made him the leader in the greatest battle of his life — 
the battle for the constitution of the United States. 




CHAPTER XIV 

THE BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 

|HE difficulties which beset the way of the adoption 
of the constitution that made the United States a 
nation now honored by all can be properly appre- 
ciated ohly by a more extended view of the con- 
dition of the colonies, from their origin to that momentous 
accomplishment, than this book can be permitted to give. The 
most insurmountable difficulty arose, as has already been seen, 
from the born and bred prejudices and the hereditary char- 
acter of the different settlements. The well-grounded appre- 
hensions of interference with their local .customs," habits, 
opinions, and laws ; their intense loyalty and devotion to the 
only local sovereignty they had ever known; their life-long 
resistance to the tyranny of a supreme power that had out- 
raged and denied their cherished rights ; the accomplishment 
of the supreme desire to rule themselves as they saw fit ; all 
these forced on the colonists the feeling that to establish a 
central authority superior to themselves was to enthrone the 
very demon they had destroyed, was to surrender the chief 
fruits of the victory achieved. 

The Southerner looked with a mixture of amusement and 
contempt upon the New Englander who was not allowed to 
kiss his wife from dusk of Saturday to dusk of Sunday, while 
the wife, at the same time, was not allowed to make the bread 
that merited that kiss. The New Englander threw up his 
hands and gave nasal voice to his horror over the speeding 
steed, the shuffling card, the sparkling julep that so delighted 
his Southern neighbor. There were many of these mole-hills 
of customs that in the aggregate made mountains, and there 
were mountains of local interests and diverse occupations, 

222 



THE BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 223 

whose growth kept pace with the country's progress, and to 
this day tower above us. Naturally, these differences and 
provincial predilections promoted, with the masses, a prefer- 
ence for a mere league between the states. 

Recall, now, the fact that every one of the efforts for 
union, up to the adoption of the constitution, was solely for 
the purpose of common defense. Not one of them proposed 
any plan wherein the league or unity even hinted at any 
authority over the people of the respective colonies or states. 
All were upon the theory of the sovereignty of each distinct 
community. Much of the opposition to the Articles of Con- 
federation was that they looked to a national existence. State 
independence had been ground into the colonists' whole 
political being. The survival of that idea is not surprising. 

"With the peril that had caused their united action gone, 
the states returned to their own separate affairs, and the con- 
federacy grew in debility, weak as it was to begin with. The 
states began to quarrel about boundaries. They began to make 
separate arrangements with foreign nations as to commerce, 
bidding against each other for trade in reduced tariffs. They 
commenced to enact import duties against each other, so that 
if a farmer took his produce or a merchant took his wares from 
one state to another, he had to pay a duty before he could 
dispose of them. They started to adopt all the policies of 
governments foreign to each other — a condition that was sure 
to end in aggravated estrangements. 

George Ticknor Curtis, in his ''History of the Constitution," 
says: ''This brief interval was full of suffering and peril. 
There are scarcely any evils or dangers of a political nature, 
and springing from political or social causes, to which a free 
people can be exposed, which the people of the United States 
did not experience during that period." 

John Fiske, in his great historical work, terms it "The 
Critical Period of American History," saying: "It is not too 
much to say that the period of five years following the peace 



334 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

of 1783 was the most critical moment in all the history of the 
American people." 

The government of the confederation was spoken of in 
Massachusetts as a foreign government, and John Adams said 
that the members of its congress more resembled ambassadors 
from their respective states to a foreign power than members 
of a common government. 

Says John Marshall, in his "Life of "Washington": "An 
opinion began to prevail that the government must be in- 
vigorated by agreement or by force, and that a part of the 
opposition to the convention originated in a desire to establish 
a system of greater energy than could spring from consent." 

The secretary of war for the confederation wrote to Wash- 
ington: "The mass of the people feel the inconvenience of 
the present government, and ardently wish for such alterations 
as would remedy them. These must be effected by reason 
and by agreement, or by force." 

The weary five years' travel of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion to their final adoption show the extent of dissatisfaction 
they early encountered. In September, 1780, Alexander Hamil- 
ton, from his tent, wrote to James Duane, a member of the 
Continental Congress from New York, on the subject of state 
supremacy and a national government, as provided for in the 
Articles of Confederation, and urged the calling of a general 
convention in the following November, with full power to 
conclude upon a general confederation. In this communication 
he set forth an outline of such a constitution as he deemed 
essential for an efficient government, stating that the plan 
of the articles then before the congress was neither fit for war 
nor peace, and that but for Washington, some of the lines of 
the army would obey the states instead of congress. 

In 1782, Hamilton's father-in-law. General Philip Schuyler, 
was a member of the New York legislature, and through him 
Hamilton submitted such a national system for their recom- 
mendation to the Continental Congress and the states. That 
legislature unanimously made the recommendation, calling a 



THE BATTLE FOE THE CONSTITUTION 325 

convention to revise and amend the articles, by giving to con- 
gress an increase of authority. The Massachusetts general 
court, or legislature, did the same, but the Massachusetts 
members of congress induced their state legislature to recon- 
sider and repeal the action. 

Again, in 1783, while a member of congress, Hamilton 
urgently sought to have such a convention called. 

In the same year, Pelatiah Webster, a man of much local 
note, and Thomas Paine contributed addresses to the public 
to the same effect. In 1784, Noah Webster, whose fame now 
rests on his Dictionary, but who was an able and influential 
writer on political and economic questions, wrote a pamphlet, 
which he carried in person to Washington, proposing "a new 
system of government which should act, not on the states, but 
directly on individuals, and vest in congress full power to 
carry its laws into effect." The plan deeply impressed Wash- 
ington. 

The scarcity of newspapers made pamphlet writing the 
favorite and most influential method of discussing public 
questions in that early day. The people had no guide in past 
history for the government they all wanted. The nearest gov- 
ernments to their ideals were the Grecian and Roman re- 
publics. The assumed names over which they wrote show to 
what an extent those far-off republics were studied for the 
desired plan of this new republic. 

Sir Henry Maine says: "From the fall of the Roman re- 
public, there was on the whole, for seventeen centuries, an 
almost universal movement towards kingship. From the reign 
of Augustus Caesar to the establishment of the United States, 
it was democracy which was always, as a rule, on the decline." 

It is harder to conquer prejudice than it is to convince the 
reason. The habits, the prejudices, and the tendencies of the 
times, as well as of localities, had all to be combated. The 
pride caused by the assumption of individual success in what 
had been accomplished by united effort flushed each state 
with the victory achieved over England, and each felt abun- 



226 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

dantly able to take care of itself, since no threat of a foreign 
foe confronted it. Selfish motives swayed many of the am- 
bitious. The spirit, "I had rather be the first man in a village 
than the second in all Rome," prompted too many. No great 
teacher with governmental experience told the advantages of 
such a government as we have. The states had known and 
could see the narrow profit accruing to individual dicker with 
the foreign countries with which centered the bulk of their 
commerce. They had yet to learn that independence and 
interdependence were blended essentials. But selfishness was 
fast overleaping itself, and the cutthroat policy pursued as 
to each other was recoiling upon all, and blocking business at 
home as well as abroad. Commerce and agriculture at last 
clasped hands with sagacious politics in seeking to promote 
and establish the common security. Neither could longer 
endure the burdens that confined it to the bounds of its im- 
mediate locality. That the home market was the best market 
was beginning to dawn upon them. 

"Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, and a few others 
of far-reaching foresight had the ultimate end in view, but 
the path to it had to be pursued with all the cunnin-g known 
in tracking the wily warriors of the forest. To proclaim the 
purpose of national unity was to court defeat. The leaders 
as well as the masses had to be educated up to it. Conferences 
must be held to convince the able and influential. Self-interest 
as well as patriotism must be appealed to. Patience and 
prudence to the utmost must be practiced to convince the 
public that profit was in the answer to the appeal of necessity ; 
that gain and glory would be the twin offspring of national 
unity. 

There is but little question, if any, that the large majority 
of both the leaders and the masses were, at first, opposed to 
the creation of a national government. When the delegates 
to the convention that framed our constitution were elected, 
national unity was not the avowed purpose of that convention. 
If such purpose had been announced and understood in ad- 



THE BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 227 

Vance, no such convention would have convened for years, if 
ever. For the states w^ere fast drifting towards the abyss of 
domestic strife through disputes over lands claimed within 
and beyond their respective borders, over their boundaries, 
over the share of the public debt that each should discharge, 
and over many other sources of irritation that would have 
left them so embittered as to make their union impossible. 

Contentions of every description were cropping out of the 
conditions that promised peace and prosperity. New Jersey 
refused to pay her quota of the debt of the Revolution. New 
York refused to pass one amendment, and Rhode Island an- 
other, agreed to in each case by the other twelve states, 
enabling the congress to raise a revenue to pay the interest on 
the public debt, and since unanimous action was necessary to 
amend, the last means to meet the obligations all had pledged 
their honor to discharge was lost. 

The states began to repudiate their debts and to enable 
their citizens to do practically the same thing, by passing laws 
whereby, in the language of Justice Joseph Story: ''Property 
of any sort, however worthless, either real or personal, might 
be tendered by the debtor in payment of his debt; and the 
creditor was compelled to take the property of the debtor, 
which he might seize on execution at an appraisement wholly 
disproportionate to its real value ; such laws entailed the most 
enormous evils on the country, and introduced a system of 
chicanery, fraud, and profligacy which destroyed all private 
confidence, industry, and enterprise." 

This public dishonor of sacred obligations, as is always the 
case, was spreading to individuals who were beginning to 
disregard the law. The Shays' Rebellion, openly defying the 
courts and the government, broke out in Massachusetts. Wash- 
ington and his ablest compeers were overwhelmed with despair 
at the outcome of their unselfish sacrifices, and were beginning 
to feel that universal anarchy was rapidly approaching. Take 
his words: 

"It is getting to be a matter of regret that so much blood 



328 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

and treasure have been lavished for no purpose, that so many- 
sufferings have been encountered without compensation, and 
that so many sacrifices have been made in vain." Or, "Provi- 
dence may for some wise purpose of His own suffer our indis- 
cretions and folly to place our national character low in the 
political scale." Or, "We have probably had too good an 
opinion of human nature in forming our confederation. Ex- 
perience has taught that men will not adopt and carry into 
execution measures best calculated for their own good, without 
the intervention of coercive power. I do not conceive we can 
exist long as a nation without lodging somewhere a power 
which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner 
as the authority of the state governments extends over the 
several states." Or, "I am told that even respected characters 
speak of a monarchical government without horror. From 
thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a 
single step." Or, "You talk of influence to appease the present 
tumults. Influence is not government. Let us have a gbvern- 
ment by which our lives, liberty, and property will be se- 
cured." Or, "The want of energy in the Federal government, 
the pulling of one state and parts of states against another, 
and the commotions among the eastern people, have sunk our 
national character below par, and have brought our politics 
and credit to the brink of a precipice. A step or two more 
must plunge us into inextricable ruin. Our affairs are drawing 
to an awful crisis." Or, "However delicate the revision of 
the Federal system may appear, it is a work of indispensable ' 
necessity. The present constitution is inadequate ; the super- 
structure is tottering to its foundation, and without help will 
bury us in its ruins." 

In one of his later letters, he says: "In our endeavors to 
establish a new general government, the contest, nationally 
considered, seems not to have been so much for glory as 
existence. It was for a long time doubtful whether we were 
to survive as an independent republic, or decline from our 



THE BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 239 

Federal dignity into insignificant and wretched fragments of 
empire. ' ' 

During the winter of 1785-1786, the congress received in 
five months less than one-fourth enough to support it for a 
single day, and the national army had dwindled to eighty men. 

Seven of the states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 
Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia, claimed the land 
west of them to the Mississippi ; the first four that then known 
as "The Northwest Territory," and now comprising the states 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The be- 
lief that they could dispose of this land so as to pay off the 
war debt, and relieve the several states from the heavy burden 
of their share thereof, was one of the strongest bonds that 
held them together. 

It is interesting to follow the historic course of events. 
The repeated efforts, vainly made, to induce congress to start 
the action for a revision of the Articles of Confederation and 
the known attitude of its leaders, convinced those favoring a 
national government that the cause was hopeless through con- 
gress. But congress had no power over commerce. As to 
commerce, the states could act unhampered. 

The first adroit move was to get Virginia and Maryland 
to appoint commissioners to meet at Alexandria to arrange 
some uniform plan to prevent smuggling and to regulate com- 
merce over the Potomac that divided them. This was done 
in March, 1785. The commissioners met, and adjourned to 
meet at Mt. Vernon, to consult with the one man whose wisdom 
all of the states respected, if not revered — Washington. 

Washington's first services as a soldier had been along the 
headwaters of the Ohio. He knew the value of the vast terri- 
tory beyond the Alleghanies, and the danger of that territory 
drifting to a connection with Spain, which then owned the 
land far up and beyond the Mississippi. For several years he 
had labored to get a canal built connecting the Potomac with 
the Ohio. With a political end in view, he had refused the 
magnificent tender of the fortune he needed in the shares of 



330 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

the canal company voted him as a testimonial for his "unsur- 
passed services." If that canal was completed, Pennsylvania 
had to be consulted, as it would pass through her territory. 
Then Pennsylvania and Delaware were interested, as well as 
Virginia and Maryland, in the commerce over Chesapeake Bay. 
As the conference progressed, the need of similar action by 
all the states on commercial matters grew more and more 
apparent. Other matters of identical and coordinate concern 
developed in importance. At last, the conference educated 
the commissioners up to the opportune moment, and "Washing- 
/ ton seized it to sound the key-note, which was caught up by 
/ the intelligent patriotism of the country. He said: "The 
/ proposition is self-evident; we are either a united people, or 
we are not so. If the former, let us in all matters of national 
concern, act as a nation, which has a national character .to 
support. If the states, individually, attempt to regulate com- 
merce, an abortion or many-headed monster will be the issue. 
If we consider ourselves, or wish to be considered by others, 
as a united people, why not adopt the measures which are 
characteristic of it, and support the power and dignity of one. 
If we are afraid to trust one another under qualified powers, 
there is an end of union." 

Commerce was the key-note. They must sail into the harbor 
of a Union, under a government that was a government, on 
the ships of commerce. 

This meeting was followed by an invitation, combining as 
much of diplomacy as of practical common sense and patriot- 
ism. Virginia sent that invitation to all of the states, asking 
them to send delegates to a "Trade Convention," to be held 
at Annapolis on the second Monday in September, 1786. To 
this convention none of the New England states sent any rep- 
resentatives, nor did Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia. 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, and North 
Carolina did appoint delegates, but so little was thought of 
the movement that they did not attend. But five states, New 



THE BATTLE FOE THE CONSTITUTION 231 

York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia were 
represented. 

This conference resulted in accentuating the need of re- 
vising the Articles of Confederation. After issuing a call, 
drawn by Alexander Hamilton, to send delegates for that 
purpose to a convention in the following May, the convention 
adjourned. But in its call it took a long step forward. 

The Alexandria conference was simply to regulate com- 
merce between Virginia and Maryland. The Annapolis con- 
ference was called to regulate commerce between all states, 
but commerce alone was the topic to be touched. The purpose 
of the next convention was stated to be as follows : 

"To take into consideration the state of the United States, 
to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them 
necessary, to render the constitution of the Federal govern- 
ment adequate to the exigencies of the Union and to report 
such an act for that purpose to the United States in congress 
assembled, as when agreed to by them, and afterwards con- 
firmed by the legislatures of every state, shall effectually 
provide for the same." 

Hamilton, Madison, and many others of profound patriotic 
intent understood what that language meant, but the public 
in general did not. It proclaimed the purpose of a more 
efficient government, the necessity for which all admitted, but 
not the national government they really needed, yet could not 
understand, and therefore dreaded. It was broad enough to 
build on it the "new roof," as the proposed constitution was 
aptly called, but the full purpose was not stated. Its authors 
were ahead of their day and they knew it. But they also 
knew that the educating development of opportunity would 
lead their countrymen to the same convictions that their pro- 
found, experienced, and intimate knowledge of public affairs 
had forced upon them, and that in due time they could safely 
and fully proclaim and openly advocate the broader measures 
contemplated. Subsequent events showed the accuracy of their 
judgment. 



233 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAJIEES 

This proposition was made before the congress in October, 

1786, and at the same time before the legislatures of all the 
states. Congress halted. The states took the matter up. 

Virginia was the first state to act. Her legislature unani- 
mously approved the proposition and appointed the governor, 
Edmund Randolph, George Washington, Patrick Henry, 
James Madison, George Wythe, George Mason, and James 
Blair as delegates. 

Washington's reappearance in public life was hailed with 
universal joy by the advocates of a better government. It 
gave the movement an impetus and respectability that no 
other action could have effected. 

Soon six more states fell into linC;, and selected delegates. 
Congress was still opposed to this movement that it had not 
inaugurated, but the movement had gained such headway that 
it could no longer be ignored. Rufus King and Nathan Dane, 
of Massachusetts, up to this time had delayed acting upon the 
call of the Annapolis convention, contending that congress 
must propose, and that the states ought to ignore such a self- 
constituted convention. Unable, however, to longer head it off, 
and endeavoring to get around the inevitable, Mr. King moved 
that congress should propose a convention identical with the 
one called. This resolution was not passed until February 28, 

1787. It read : 

"In the opinion of congress to be expedient that, on the 
second Monday in May, next, a convention of delegates who 
shall have been appointed by the several states to be held at 
Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the 
Articles of Confederation, and reporting to congress and the 
several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein, 
as shall, when agreed to in congress, and confirmed by the 
states, render the Federal constitution adequate to the exi- 
gencies of government and the preservation of the Union." 

These two calls because of their difference raised a question 
which was sprung as soon as the convention met. The broad 
proposal of the Annapolis convention justified such an entire 



THE BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 233 

revision of what they called the constitution as actually re- 
sulted. The narrow resolution of congress justified simply a 
revising of the Articles of Confederation. 

The states, too, showed the same divergence in the resolu- 
tions appointing their delegates. Some of these resolutions 
read, "For the purpose of revising the Federal constitution"; 
others, "to decide upon the most effective means to remove 
the defects of the Federal Union"; others, "for the sole and 
express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation"; 
others, "to render the Federal constitution entirely adequate 
to the actual situation." 

Under such conflicting calls and appointments, no little 
confusion existed as to the powers and authority of the con- 
vention, especially at a time when the states were so rightfully 
assertive of their sovereignty, and were united by so loose a 
bond under the confederation. 

Says Hildreth: "At the very threshold of debate, an im- 
portant question arose, and at every step, it threatened to 
recur. What was the limit of the powers of the convention? 
Would the amendment of the Articles of Confederation be 
carried so far as to establish an entirely new system? 

"The answer, that, whatever they might submit had to 
be agreed upon by conventions specially called for that pur- 
pose by the legislatures of the respective states, and that the 
question of authority was of but little consequence, and ought 
not to deter the convention from proposing a plan fully ade- 
quate to the existing difficulties." 

; In law and logic, the common sense doctrine has ever pre- 
vailed, that ratification of a previously, unauthorized act of 
an agent gives that act the same validity as if previous sanction 
had been bestowed. This point, that the convention exceeded 
its authority in providing for a national government, was 
raised in the convention, and in every state by the opponents 
of the constitution. The convention's action was ratified by 
the adoption of the constitution, and that ratification removes 
all ground for criticism on the foregoing account. 



234 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMEES 

Washington always dealt fairly with the American people 
in the adoption of any course of conduct. His letter as presi- 
dent of the convention, submitting the constitution, left no 
ambiguity. In it, he says, ^'It is obviously impracticable in 
the Federal government of these states, to secure all rights 
of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the 
interest and safety of all. 

"In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily 
in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of 
every true American, the consolidation of our union, in which 
is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our na- 
tional existence." 

This letter unfurled the flag of a national government. It 
proclaimed the purpose of the army marshalling under the 
lead of the "Father of his Country." Upon these plain propo- 
sitions, the vote was cast and the ratification was made. 
i To this convention, the greatest, the most momentous ever 
held in America, if not in the world's history, all of the states-t?^ 
sent delegates, except Rhode Island. Conference convinced 
its leaders of the absolute necessity of a permanent, authorita- 
tive, central government, clothed with ample powers to en- 
force its enactments, yet leaving to the states complete control 
as to their internal and local affairs. To establish such a com- 
plex, yet composite system; to overcome the prejudices born 
of such fateful experience ; to provide for the liberties all had 
risked and suffered so much to secure; to gain forever the 
united power of all for mutual protection and mutual prog- 
ress, yet not to reenthrone the central tyranny that had so 
oppressed them, was the desired and difficult task at hand. 
The result was not what even a majority of the delegates had 
wished, but was a compromise. Yet it has since grown in the 
regard and reverence of our whole people and has become the 
admiration of the world, and the model of the world's re- 
publics. 

To posterity's lasting regret, it was resolved to keep the 
proceedings of the convention secret and only to make the 



THE BATTLE FOE THE CONSTITUTION 235 

result known. Messrs. Martin and Yates took brief notes 
which were afterwards published, and James Madison kept a 
diary which was not published until over half a century had 
passed, when by order of the United States congress, to whom 
it had been left, it was given to the world. 

The journal of the convention was left with Washington, 
was by him deposited with the department of state and was 
published in 1818, by order of congress. 

On May 14th, the day the convention was called to meet, 
so few of the delegates had arrived that the convention was 
not called. Nor did it convene in formal session until May 
29th. Even then there were only twenty-nine delegates, repre- 
senting nine states. The convention met in the same historic 
building where the Declaration of Independence was signed — 
Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia. 

Washington was unanimously chosen president. He opened 
the proceedings with a brief address that sent this solemn 
warning to the heart of every member : 

"It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. 
Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to 
please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how 
can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard 
to which the wise and the honest can repair; the event is in 
the hands of God." 

Four different plans were then in due course subniitted, 
with elaborate arguments in favor of each by their proponents. 
Virginia, being the most populous state, and having been the 
first to take legislative action in regard to the call for the 
convention — if indeed she was not the originator of it — had 
the honor of having her representative, Governor Randolph, 
present his plan and open the discussion. Charles Pinckney, 
of South Carolina, followed with his draft of a constitution, 
far more elaborate and systematic than any other plan sub- 
mitted. In form, substance, manner, and arrangement, this 
so resembled the constitution finally adopted that it must be 



i)^.-\-'^ ^v-vt-' 



given the credit of being the framework about which our con- .^^^ ^"f' <^ 



if 



236 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

stitution was built. Mr. Paterson, of New Jersey, followed 
with what is known as the New Jersey or "state rights" plan 
of government. Mr. Hamilton explained his wishes in an able 
address, but hopeless of having his extreme views adopted, 
did not submit written propositions, as did the others. He 
considered the national plan of Messrs. Randolph and Pinck- 
ney as but little better than that of Mr. Paterson, saying that 
"they were but pork still, with a little change of the sauce." 

It is remarkable that, without a single exception, there 
was one common provision embodied in all of these several 
plans, that was that the laws and treaties of the general gov- 
ernment should be the supreme law of the land, and that the 
judges in all the states should be bound thereby in their 
decisions, anything in the laws of the states to the contrary 
notwithstanding. The extreme "state rights" plan of Mr. 
Paterson, Section 7, provided: "If any state or any body of 
men in any state shall oppose or prevent the carrying into 
execution such acts or treaties, the Federal executive shall 
be authorized to call forth the powers of the Confederate 
States, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to enforce 
and compel an obedience to such acts and treaties." 

These various plans were debated until the 26th of July, 
when the committee of the whole house reported a series of 
resolutions, the first of which read as follows : 

"Resolved, that it is the opinion of this committee that a 
national government ought to be established, consisting of a 
supreme, legislative, judiciary, and executive." 

These resolutions were referred to a committee of five, 
termed the Committee of Detail, consisting of Messrs. Rut- 
ledge, Randolph, Gorham, Ellsworth, and Wilson. 

The first of the series of resolutions reported by this com- 
mittee reads : 

"Resolved, that the government of the United States ought 
to consist of a supreme, legislative, judiciary, and executive." 

Thereupon, the convention instructed this committee to 
report a draft of a constitution in accordance with these reso- 



THE BATTLE FOE THE CONSTITUTION 237 

lutions, which it did on August 6th. The draft consisted of a 
preamble, worded like that of Mr. Pinckuey, and twenty-three 
articles. This draft was debated until September 8th, when 
it was referred to a committee of five, termed the Committee 
of Style and Arrangement, consisting of Messrs. Johnson, 
Madison, Gouverneur Morris, Hamilton, and King. This com- 
mittee made numerous changes, not only in the style and 
arrangement of the articles of the submitted constitution, but 
in its most material provisions, and reported it back, so 
changed, on September 12th. These changes it will be well to 
recur to in the subsequent discussion of the preamble of the 
constitution. 

Among the most noticeable and vital were these: 

The preamble read: ''We, the people of the states of" — 
naming all of the states. This was changed to read: "We, 
the people of the United States." 

The senate was given exclusive authority to make treaties, 
and to appoint ambassadors, etc., to foreign countries, and 
judges of the United States courts. This was changed, em- 
powering the president to make treaties by and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the senate, and to nominate such officials 
and appoint them by and with the advice and consent of the 
senate. 

Senators were prohibited from holding office for one year 
after the expiration of their term of election. This prohibition 
was stricken out. 

In case of a controversy between the states, or over lands 
claimed by grants from different states, application had to be 
made to the senate to create a tribunal to settle the contro- 
versy, the contestants agreeing upon the persons who should 
constitute the tribunal. If the contestants could not agree, 
the senate was to select them from a number submitted to 
choose from. This was changed, and such matters relegated 
to the United States court; the Supreme Court being given 
original jurisdiction when the controversy was between states. 



238 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

The Supreme Court was to try all impeachments. These 
were transferred to the senate for trial. 

The senate was not allowed to either originate or amend 
bills to raise a revenue. This was changed, allowing the 
senate to amend such bills. The president was to be elected 
by congress for a term of seven years, to be ineligible for 
reelection, and his title to be "His Excellency." This was 
changed to his election by electors specially chosen therefor; 
the term to four years; re-eligibility allowed; and his title 
omitted. 

All bills were to be passed upon by the president within 
seven days. This was enlarged to ten days. Three years' resi- 
dence made one eligible to the house of representatives; four 
years to the senate. This was changed to seven years for the 
house ; nine years for the senate. 

Congress was allowed to establish a property qualification 
for eligibility to the house and senate, and the states were to 
pay the salaries of their senators and representatives. The 
property qualification was stricken out, and the salaries made 
payable by the national government. 

No navigation act, or regulation of commerce, could be 
enacted but by the vote of two-thirds of those present in both 
houses. This was changed, giving congress unlimited control 
over such legislation, except that no duty could be imposed 
upon exports. 

To amend the constitution, two-thirds of the legislatures of 
the states had to petition congress, then congress had to call 
a general convention to pass upon the amendment before it 
was submitted to the states. This was changed so that con- 
gress, by a two-thirds vote, or the legislatures of two-thirds 
of the states, could propose an amendment, and the legislatures, 
or conventions specially called therefor in all of the states, had 
to ratify it by a vote of three-fourths of all the states. 

Conviction for treason could be secured on the testimony 
of two witnesses. This was changed to conviction on the 



THE BATTLE FOE THE CONSTITUTION 239 

testimony of not less than two witnesses to the same overt act, 
and never upon confession, except in open court. 

These many important and material changes in the draft 
of the constitution submitted to the Committee on Style and 
Arrangement are overwhelming proofs that every one of the 
changes were diligently considered by the entire committee, 
and were not the work of any one man. There is this addi- 
tional evidence that the entire convention carefully considered 
all of these several changes : From the 12th to the 17th of 
September, this final draft was debated by the convention, 
important amendments being offered by Franklin, Madison, 
Randolph, and others, all failing of passage, with the exception 
of that recommended by "Washington, increasing the ratio of 
representation in the house of representatives from one in 
every forty thousand, to one in every thirty thousand of the 
population. 

The constitution was engrossed and signed by all of the 
members remaining, except Messrs. Gerry, Mason, and Ran- 
dolph, and then transmitted to the congress, with the resolu- 
tion and letter of the convention, as set forth in the Appendix ; 
whereupon the convention adjourned. 

The difficulties it had to overcome and the rapidity of its 
educating influence upon its members may be somewhat appre- 
ciated by the following advanced expressions from the leading 
men of the country, in and out of the convention. 

John Jay: "The people who owned the property of the 
country should govern it." 

Elbridge Gerry: "The evils that we experience flow from 
an excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but 
are the dupes of pretended patriots." 

Edmund Randolph: "In tracing these evils to their origin, 
every man finds them in the turbulence and follies of democ- 
racy. ' ' 

John Dickinson: "I consider a limited monarchy the best 
government in the world." 



240 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

Alexander Hamilton : ' ' The British government is the best 
government in the world." 

Pierce Butler, as to the election of president and senators : 
"An election by the people is an impracticable mode." 

Gouv^rneur Morris: ''A life senate so as to protect the 
rich against the poor. There never was and never will be a 
society without an aristocracy," 

Oliver Ellsworth: ''A new set of ideas seems to have crept 
in since the Articles of Confederation were established. Con- 
ventions of the people, or with power derived from the people 
were not then thought of." 

James Madison: ''The majority will oppress the wealthy 
minority. ' ' 

The conferences and discussions by the members of that 
convention changed this current of opinion, and made the 
majority of these very men the earnest advocates for the 
adoption of a constitution that provided for and recognized 
the people as no instrument of any government had ever done 
before : one that put in sacred and durable shape the hopes, 
the aspirations, and the efforts of the down-trodden and strug- 
gling masses since the dawn of government. 

James Wilson aptly expressed the consensus of this edu- 
cated, developed opinion: ''Without the confidence of the 
people, no government, least of all a republican government, 
can long subsist. The election of the first branch by the people 
is not the cornerstone only, but the foundation of the fabric." 

Alexander Hamilton followed with: "It is essential to the 
democratic rights of the community that the first branch be 
directly elected by the people." 

The two theories, national and state supremacy, were at 
war from the start. Disruption was often dangerously near. 
Debates were heated. Interests clashed. Egotism asserted 
its baneful influence. Prejudices drew asunder. Lack of 
confidence in the people's judgment and the absence of any 
guide in such weighty work left the convention in almost 
hopeless confusion. Some of the delegates were so dissatisfied 



THE BATTLE FOE THE CONSTITUTION 241 

before the convention was half over that they left. Others were 
never reached by the kindlier spirit of conciliation that marked 
the closing hours, and fought the constitution to the end in 
their respective states. The outburst of Mr. Bedford, that if 
the smaller states were not accorded the equality in congress 
demanded, "A foreign power stood ready to take them by 
the hand," exhibited the drifting . toward monarchy, appre- 
hended by many before the convention met, and created an 
alarm that startled every member of the convention. 

At one time Washington was so near the only surrender 
of his life that he wrote to a friend : "I almost despair of 
seeing a favorable issue to the proceedings of the convention, 
and I do, therefore, regret that I had any agency in the busi- 
ness." 

Four figures in that convention tower above all others: 
Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, and Madison. 

Washington made but one address upon its measures during 
it all. His position forbade the indelicacy of further participa- 
tion. His single speech was at the end, to secure conciliation 
and better care for the people. But his sound judgment, that 
Patrick Henry years before so extolled, was constantly ex- 
ercised, and had its influential effect. This, with Franklin's 
last appeal, carried the day. Franklin was too feeble to de- 
liver his appeal, but he wrote it out and his able colleague, 
James Wilson, read it. Franklin's keen and humorous satire 
as to the opinionated, in this address, unhorsed some of the 
opposition ; his paternal advice persuaded others ; his practical 
common sense convinced the wavering that the plan offered 
was the best obtainable. This admirable address, so full of 
truthful suggestion to this day, was as follows : 

"I confess that there are several parts of this constitutiou / 
which I do nut at present approve, but I am not sure that 
shall never approve them; for, having lived long, I have ex- 
perienced many instances of being obliged, by better informa- 
tion, or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on 
important subjects, which I once thought to be right, but 



i/ 



243 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

found to be otherwise. It is, therefore, that the older I grow, 
the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment and to pay- 
more respect to the judgment of others. /^Most men, indeed, 
as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession 
of all truth, and that whenever others differ with them, it is so 
far error. Steele, a Protestant, in a dedication tells the Pope 
that the only difference in our churches in their opinions of the 
certainty of their doctrines is, 'The Church of Rome is in- 
fallible, and the Church of England is never in the wrong.' 
But though many private persons think almost as highly of 
their own infallibility as that of their own sect, few express 
it so naturally as a certain French lady, who, in a dispute with 
her sister said: 'I don't kno"vV how it happens, sister, but I 
meet with nobody but myself who is always in the right — 41 
n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison.' 

"In these sentiments, I agree to this constitution with all 
its faults, if they are such ; because I think a general govern- 
ment necessary for us, and there is no form of government 
but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, 
and I believe further that this is likely to be well administered 
for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other 
forms have done before it, when the people shall have become 
so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable 
of any other. I doubt, too, whether any other convention we 
can obtain may be able to make a better constitution. For 
when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of 
their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all 
their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their 
local interests and their selfish views. From such an assembly, 
can a perfect production be expected? It, therefore, astonishes 
me to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it 
does ; and, I think that it will astonish our enemies, who are 
waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are con- 
founded, like those of the builders of Babel, and that our 
states are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for 
the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus, I consent 



THE BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 243 

to this constitution, because I expect no better, and because I 
am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had, 
of its errors are sacrificed to the public good. I have never 
whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls, they 
were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in 
returning to our constituents were to report the objections he 
has had to it, and endeavor to gain partisans in support of 
them, he might prevent its being generally received, and there- 
by lose all the salutary effects and great advantages resulting 
naturally in our favor among foreign nations, as well as among 
ourselves, from our real or our apparent unanimity. Much of 
the strength and efficiency of any government in procuring 
and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion — 
on the general opinion of the goodness of the government as 
well as the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope, 
therefore, that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and 
for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously 
in recommending this constitution (if approved by congress, 
and confirmed by the convention) wherever our influence may 
extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the 
means of having it well administered. On the whole, I cannot 
help expressing a wish that every member of the convention 
who may still have objections to it, would with me on this 
occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility and, to make 
manifest our unanimity, put his name to the instrument." 

On September 17, 1787, the constitution was signed, the 
immortal work of the convention completed, and its four 
months' session ended by final adjournment. 

Its members often spoke of the impressive solemnity of 
that final hour. 

James Madison concludes his diary of its deliberations as 
follows : 

"Whilst the last members were signing. Dr. Franklin, look- 
ing toward the president's chair, at the back of which a rising 
sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near 
him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish, in their 



344 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PRAMERS 

art, a rising from a setting sun, 'I have,' said he, 'often and 
often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my 
hopes and fears as to its issues, looked at that behind the 
president, without being able to tell whether it was rising or 
setting. But now, at length, I have the happiness to know 
that it is a rising, and not a setting sun.' " 

The completion of the immortal work of the convention 
far from ended the battle. The opposition of the convention 
was renewed. Rufus King had come over to the standard of 
the new constitution, but others of great influence and emi- 
nence were arrayed against it. These were led by Richard 
Henry Lee, who had moved the Declaration of Independence, 
and the preparation of the Articles of Confederation, and 
Nathan Dane still lent his able opposing aid. 

Says John Marshall: "They seemed firmly persuaded that 
I the cradle of the constitution would be the grave of republican 
( liberty." 

To advocate the adoption of the constitution was for that 
congress and the confederation it represented, to urge the 
signing of its own death warrant. Eight days of anxious 
debate ensued as to whether the constitution should be sub- 
mitted to the people. Madison, "Light Horse Harry" Lee, 
and Edward Carrington made heroic efforts for its submission. 

Richard Henry Lee, from the fact that the plans pro- 
posed were the products of young men — Charles Pinckney was 
ttwenty-nine, Hamilton thirty, Randolph thirty-four, and Pater- 
fson forty-two years of age — denounced it as "the work of 
visionary young men." 

This is not the only time that "the atrocious crime of being 
a young man" gave to gifted Americans a crown of glory. 
The young, but mature young, statesmen of the congress rallied 
with all the impetuous vigor of their sturdy manhood, and 
urged the submission to the people of the constitution, whose 
growing power and importance was day by day newly im- 
pressing all. 

Just at that moment, New York knocked out the last prop 



THE BATTLE FOE THE CONSTITUTION 



245 



for raising the revenue imperatively needed to pay the interest 
on the public debt, by refusing to assent to the amendment to 
the Articles of Confederation allowing duties to be levied on 
imports. Thereupon the helpless, impoverished congress 
yielded. 

The best, however, that could be obtained was a decision 
to merely submit the constitution to the people, neither approv- 
ing nor disapproving of it. The resolution to do this read as 
follows : 

"That the said report, with the resolution and letter ac- 
companying the same, be transmitted to the several legisla- 
tures in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates 
chosen in each state by the people thereof, in conformity to 
the resolve of the convention made and provided in that case." 

This resolution passed on September 28, 1787. From that 
time the battle was then carried to the states. Great men in 
each state fought it with all the earnestness and skill they 
could command. 

In Virginia, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Richard Henry 
Lee, and James Monroe, opposing it, were pitted against James 
Madison, George Wythe, John Marshall, and Edmund Ran- 
dolph. 

Wilson led the splendid fight for it in Pennsylvania, aided 
by the feeble, yet powerful Franklin. 

Hancock and at first Samuel Adams, in Massachusetts, 
were lukewarm, if not hostile. Elbridge Gerry had refused 
to sign, and was bitterly opposed to the ratification. He had 
been defeated for a seat in the Massachusetts convention, but 
was a formidable power against ratification, nevertheless. In 
this situation, Paul Revere outdid his former famous ride, and 
brought to the constitutional party the needed alliance of 
Samuel Adams. The voice of the people was potent with Mr. 
Adams. Revere gathered the mechanics in a meeting at the 
Green Dragon Tavern in support of ratification, and was made 
chairman of the committee to report their resolutions to Mr. 
Adams and the convention. "How many mechanics were at 



346 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMEES 

the Green Dragon when these resolutions were passed?" asked 
Mr. Adams. "More, sir, than the Green Dragon could hold," 
replied Revere. "And where were the rest?" "In the 
street." "And how many were in the street?" "More, sir, 
than there are stars in the sky," replied the enthusiastic Re- 
vere. That settled it. Mr. Adams came over to the forces of 
the constitution, and the Massachusetts convention ratified it. 

Rutledge and the two Pinckneys led the forces for the 
constitution in South Carolina, and Baldwin in Georgia. Both 
states swung into the conquering line, the latter by unanimous 
vote. 

Of all the states represented, in North Carolina alone was 
ratification defeated. 

In no state did the battle rage fiercer than in New York. 
Governor Clinton, the most influential man in the state, Yates, 
Lansing, and Melancthon Smith, an orator of unusual power, 
bitterly opposed its ratification. The convention elected to 
consider it was overwhelmingly against it. Hamilton, Madison, 
and Jay united their massive batteries in the "Federalist," and 
Hamilton, an army in himself, had to make almost the sole 
contest in the convention. Never was a greater victory won 
by one man. His convincing arguments first made captive 
Melancthon Smith, and changed him into an aggressive ally. 
Others followed. The discussions were prolonged until it was 
known that nine states had ratified the constitution and that 
the Union under the constitution was an accomplished fact. 
It was then seen that if New York stayed out she would be 
located with this union of states on the north, east, and south 
of her, and the alien British possessions on the west. By the 
narrow margin of three votes, her once hostile convention 
turned into a friendly convention, and the great state of New 
York was enrolled under the constitution. 

Nor in this great battle of intellectual patriotism did Wash- 
ington lose his always foremost place. During his whole 
career, he seldom spoke ; but when he did, his utterances were 
condensed words of wisdom that sank deep into the hearts of 



THE BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION . 347 

his countrymen. In addition to the clearness with which he 
culled out the kernel of every question he touched, his words 
had added weight on account of the people's love for him. 
The universal confidence in his honesty, in his sincere, supreme 
devotion to his country, and in his sound judgment, made all 
America his attentive audience. 

At the crucial moment, into the thick of this, the people's 
battle of the ages, Washington sent this solid shot that turned 
the tide of victory : 

''If another Federal convention is attempted, its members 
will be more discordant, and will agree upon no general plan. 
The constitution is the best that can be obtained at this time. 
The constitution or disunion are before us to choose from. If 
the constitution is our choice, a convenient door is open for 
amendments, and they may be adopted in a public manner, 
without turmoil or disorder." 

This statement made dispassionate judgment recognize the 
vital truths of the momentous issues at stake. It was the con- 
stitution or disunion. The open opportunity to peaceably 
amend and correct defects in a plan containing so many de- 
sirable, necessary and attractive features, stood clearly out- 
lined in this terse statement. It convinced the doubtful. It 
encouraged the redoubled efforts of the far-sighted, unselfish, 
patriotic intelligence that supported the constitution. It carried 
the conflict. 

At this critical hour there was seen a striking example of 
envenomed spite fastening its fangs in its own vitals. It was 
a lesson that the American people should never forget — the 
lesson that passionate denunciation accomplishes its own ruin. 

In a Philadelphia newspaper, a reckless opponent of the 
constitution denounced Washington as a born fool, a tyrant 
wishing to subvert the liberties of the people. 

The outrage of this ungrateful charge reacted in bringing 
about such a revulsion of feeling with those who differed from 
Washington in opinion but could not endure that sort of at- 
tack upon him, that they went over, horse, foot and dragoons, 



7 



248 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

to his side, and aided to complete his victory. His life had 
been such an open book, so thoroughly read by every Ameri- 
can, so filled with glorious achievement, so crowded with un- 
selfish goodness, that refutation was needless, and resentment 
was universal. This irretrievable blunder was a fatal 
boomerang. It made hosts in every quarter discredit even the 
arguments of the opposition. 

Sentiment is often more influential than reason. The grati- 
tude of the country was roused. Its holiest sentiment was 
touched. Its heart responded. The business interests, the 
farmers, mechanics and merchants, rallied to "Washington's sup- 
port. The majestic form of the great commander again led 
the devoted columns of his country. At last, he marched to 
his grandest victory, and planted the triumphant banner of the 
United States on the eternal ramparts of the ratified constitu- 
tion. 




CHAPTER XV 

THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 

|HE eulogies bestowed upon the framers of our constitu- 
tion were not misplaced. Their memories and achieve- 
ments merit the lasting honor of the American peo- 
ple. Their names and deeds should be familiar to 
every citizen. 

It has been uniformly claimed, since John Quincy Adams, 
by order of congress, edited the "Journal of the Federal Con- 
vention," in 1819, that sixty-five delegates were chosen to at- 
tend it. It appears, however, that seventy-three were chosen, / 
of whom fifty-five attended. 

^ Of the eighteen who did not attend, five, Abraham Clark, 
of New Jersey ; Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and Thomas 
Nelson, Jr., of Virginia, and Willie Jones, of North Carolina, 
refused to attend, and opposed both the calling of the conven- 
tion and the ratification of the constitution by their respective 
states. 

Thirteen, John Pickering and Benjamin West, of New 
Hampshire ; Francis Dana, of Massachusetts ; John Nielson, of 
New Jersey; Charles Carroll, of Carrollton; Gabriel Duvall, 
Robert Hanson, Thomas Sim Lee and Thomas Stone, of Mary- 
land ; Richard Caswell, of North Carolina ; Henry Laurens, of 
South Carolina, and Nathaniel Pendleton and George Walton, 
of Georgia, did not attend on account of infirm health or press- 
ing official duties, but supported the ratification of the con- 
stitution in their respective states. 

Four of those attending, John Lansing and Robert Yates, 
of New York, and Luther Martin and John Francis Mercer, 
of Maryland, became so dissatisfied with the trend of the con- 
vention's work that they left before it adjourned; and three 
of the forty-two present at the adjournment, Elbridge Gerry, 

249 

A. 



e^ua ^^^^:i^tcU. c^' 



350 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

of Massachusetts, and George Mason and Edmund Randolph, 
of Virginia, for similar reason refused to sign the constitution. 
Nine, William Richardson Davie and Alexander Martin, of 
North Carolina ; Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut ; W. Churchill 
Houston, of New Jersey; William Houstoun and William 
Pierce, of Georgia ; Caleb Strong, of Massachusetts, and James 
McClurg and George Wythe, of Virginia, did not sign because 
of absence at the time of the adjournment on account of illness 
or other reason of regret to them. However, all of them were 
devoted patriots and became warm supporters of the constitu- 
tion. 

This convention, whose work was as remarkable and dis- 
tinguished as any in history, was composed largely of young 
'men. Of the fifty- five members, forty-two were then under 
fifty years of age, thirty-three under forty-five, and grouped, 
as to age, as follows : 

Benjamin Franklin, 81. 

Five, 60 to 66 : George Wythe, 61 ; George Mason, 62 ; 
William Livingston^, 63 ; Daniel of St. Thomas, Jenifer, 64 ; 
Roger Sherman, 66. 

Seven, 51 to 59 : Hugh Williamson, 51 ; Robert Morris and 
George Read, 53; John Blair, John Dickinson and George 
Washington, 55 ; William Samuel Johnson, 59. 

Twenty, 40 to 49: Gunning Bedford, Jr., and James Mc- 
Clurg, 40 ; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 41 ; Richard Bassett, 
Oliver Ellsworth, John Langdon, William Paterson and Caleb 
Strong, 42; Pierce Butler, Elbridge Gerry and Thomas Mifflin, 
43 ; James Wilson, 44 ; David Brearly and Thomas Fitzsimmons, 
46 ; W. Churchill Houston, Alexander Martin and William 
Pierce, 47 ; George Clymer and John Rutledge, 48, and Robert 
Yates, 49. 

Eighteen, 30 to 39 : Alexander Hamilton, 30 ; Daniel Carroll 
and William R. Davie, 31 ; Abraham Baldwin, Nicholas Gilman, 
William Houstoun and Rufus King, 32; John Lansing and 
James McHenry, 33 ; Jacob Brown and Edmund Randolph, 
34; Gouverneur Morris, 35; James Madison, 36^; William 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 251 

Blount, 38; Jared Ingersoll, 37; William Few, Nathaniel Gos- 
horn and Luther Martin, 39. 

Four, 26 to 29 : Jonathan Dayton, 26 ; John Francis Mercer, 
28 ; Charles Pinckney and Richard Dobbs Spaight, 29. 

Jefferson designated them the ablest men in America. This 
partial summary of prominent positions in which their country- 
men placed, and for long years kept them, proves they merited 
his encomium, and were recognized adepts, or specialists, in 
government, in legislation and in constructive statesmanship. 
^ Dickinson, Johnson and Rutledge were members of the 
Stamp Act Congress. 

Dickinson, Mifflin, Read, Rutledge, Sherman and Washing- 
ton were members of the first Continental Congress in 1774. 

Clymer, Franklin, Gerry, Read, Robert Morris, Sherman, 
Wilson and Wythe signed the Declaration of Independence ; 
Dickinson drafted the Articles of Confederation. 

Eighteen at the time were, and all but twelve had been 
members, and Gorham and Mifflin presidents of the Continental 
Congress. •' 

Washington became the first and Madison the fourth presi- 
dent; Gerry sixth vice president. 

Oliver Ellsworth was one of those voted for for president 
or vice president by the electoral college in 1796. 

Ingersoll became candidate for vice president in 1812 ; King, 
candidate for vice president in 1808 and for president in 1816. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney for vice president, in 1800; 
president, in 1804 and 1808. 

Madison and Randolph, secretaries of state ; Hamilton, of 
the treasury; McHenry, of War; Hamilton and Madison, the 
chief authors of the Federalist, to this day the standard ex- 
position of the constitution. 

Bassett, Davie, Dickinson, Franklin, Gerry, Langdon, Liv- 
ingston, Alexander Martin, Mercer, Mifflin, Paterson, Charles 
Pinckney, Randolph, Spaight and Strong had been, were, or 
became governors of their states, and Blount of the Territory of 
Tennessee. 



252 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

Bassett, Blair, Brearly, Dickinson, Ellsworth, Few, Gor- 
ham, Ingersoll, Lansing, 5^d, Rutledge, Sherman, Wythe and 
Yates had been or became members, the majority chief justices, 
of the supreme court in their states. 

Ellsworth and Eutledge became chief justices ; Blair, Pater- 
son and "Wilson justices of the supreme ; Bassett and Bedford, 
Jr., judges of the circuit ; Brearley of the district court of the 
United States. 

Baldwin, Bassett, Butler, Dayton, Ellsworth, Few, Oilman, 
Johnson, King, Langdon, Alexander Martin, both Gouverneur 
and Robert Morris, Paterson E^ead, Charles Pinckney, Sher- 
man and Strong, United States senators; Baldwin and Lang- 
don, presidents pro tem of the senate, while Baldwin, Carroll, 
Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimmons, Gerry, Gilman, Madison, Mercer, 
Charles Pinckney, Sherman, Spaight and Williamson served in 
the United States House of Representatives, Dayton being 
twice elected its speaker. 

Following are brief sketches of the careers of the fifty-five 
men who took part in the convention : 

From New Hampshire 
Nicholas Gilman 

Nicholas Gilman was born at Exter, New Hampshire, 
August 3, 1755, He entered the Continental army in 1776; 
served during the rest of the war, and as an adjutant on 
Washington's staff, closed the great drama of the war when he 
took the list of the captured troops on the surrender of Corn- 
wallis at Yorktown. He was a member of the Continental 
Congress from 1786 to 1788, of the United States House of 
Representatives from 1789 to 1797, and of the United States 
Senate from 1805 to his death. May 2, 1814. 

In 1793 and again in 1797 he was a presidential elector, and 
also a state councilor. 

At the close of the constitutional convention he wrote of 
their work, ''It is the best that could meet the unanimous con- 



THE FRAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 253 

currence of the states in convention. It was done by bargain 
and compromise, yet, notwithstanding its imperfections, on the 
adoption of it depends, in my feeble judgment, whether we 
shall become a respectable nation, or a people tocn to pieces 
by intestine commotions and rendered contemptible for ages." 
His distinguished career in an era of unusual greatness 
among our country's statesmen attests his purity of character 
and eminent ability. 

John Langdon 

John Langdon, born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, June 
25, 1745, was descended from families long settled in America. 
His great-grandfather emigrated from England to that state 
over a century before. Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, 
was an ancestor on his mother's side. 

After a limited education he became a merchant's ap- 
prentice, then took up a seafaring life and rose before the 
mast to captain, then to owner of several ships. He took an 
active part in patriotic measures preceding the revolution, en- 
tered the Continental army in 1774, and as captain, took part 
in the capture of Fort William and Mary. In 1775 he was 
elected to congress, was appointed naval agent and superin- 
tended the construction of a number of war ships, including the 
Ranger, made famous by John Paul Jones, her commander. In 

1776 was appointed judge of the court of common pleas, and in 

1777 speaker of the New Hampshire Assembly. To raise funds 
to repel Burgoyne's invasion he gave $1,000 in coin, all he had; 
pledged his plate to raise $3,000 more, and added the proceeds 
of a cargo of rum. 

He helped equip a brigade that under General Stark aided 
to win the battle of Bennington, in which he took part; was 
captain of a company under General Gates when Burgoyne was 
captured ; was president of the state convention in 1779 ; again 
elected to congress in 1783, and was four times — 1785, 1788, 
1805 and 1810 — elected governor of New Hampshire. From 
1789 to 1801 he was United States senator, and twice president 



254 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

pro tern of the senate, the first time to count the votes of our 
iirst president, and had the honor of notifying Washington of 
his election. 

He declined the post of secretary of the navy offered by 
Jefferson, and the nomination for vice president in 1812. 

He was one of the founders and first president of the New 
Hampshire Bible Society. 

He was a firm advocate of the constitution in the conven- 
tion, and of its ratification by his state. 

From being an ardent Federalist he became an equally 
ardent supporter of Jefferson and his party, continuing that 
support to Madison, and the measures of his administration, 
including the war of 1812 with England. 

He married Miss Elizabeth Sherburne, by whom he had one 
daughter. 

His life was of distinguished, political activity and promi- 
nence to within a few years of his death, September 18, 1819. 

From Massachusetts 
Elbridge Gerry 

Elbridge Gerry, son of a wealthy merchant was born at 
Marblehead, Massachusetts, July 17, 1744 ; graduated with high 
rank at Harvard college in 1762, entered into business with his 
father and amassed a fortune. 

In 1773 he was elected by his town to the general court, 
or legislature, of Massachusetts Bay, and from that time took 
a leading part in the political affairs of his state and country. 

The contest was then on between the general court, led by 
Samuel Adams, and Governor Hutchinson. Gerry ably sup- 
ported Mr. Adams. 

"Through the eventful scenes which marked the year 1774, 
the impeachment of the judges, the opposition to the importa- 
tion of tea and to the Boston port bill, the establishment of the 
system of non-intercourse, and the arrangement of a close cor- 
respondence with the other colonies, he was active among the 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 255 

foremost. He also took a decided part in promoting the meet- 
ings which were held in all the large counties of the province, 
composed of committees from every town to express their senti- 
ments on the alarming state of the country, and to consult for 
the liberties and welfare of the people." 

He became a conspicuous member of the provincial con- 
gress organized that year, which declared its loyalty to the 
king, but added: 

"When the power of government, which was originally de- 
signed for the security and welfare of the people, was em- 
ployed to harass and enslave them, it became a curse, rather 
than a blessing." 

It protested against the violation of their charter by parlia- 
ment, the assembling of British soldiers and erection of fortifi- 
cations, as if to intimidate them ; of taxation without repre- 
sentation, and avowed actual hostilities to be their last resort, 
but belief that all America would support their struggle for 
liberty. 

The chief committees were those of safety, supplies and cor- 
respondence, in all of which he was of energetic activity. 

He was an intimate friend of General Warren. The night 
before Warren was killed at Bunker Hill they occupied the 
same bed, and with prophetic words Warren bade him good- 
bye, saying, ''It is sweet and proper to die for one's country." 

He was appointed a judge of the new court of admiralty, a 
lucrative and prominent position, but declined in order to de- 
vote himself to more active duties for his country. 

With Hancock, John and Samuel Adams and Robert Treat 
Paine, he was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776, in 
which he became one of the most laborious and useful members. 
He was especially active on the committees on commerce, 
finance, hospitals and supplies for the army. His critical and 
courageous examination of the commissary department, and 
fearless exposure of its abuses made him exceedingly beloved 
by our army. 

He stoutly opposed the proposition that the states vote in 



256 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

the congress according to population, and insisted on the equal 
vote of every state. As to our soldiers, he advocated the estab- 
lishment of a pension for life after the war was over. No man 
did more to properly supply. and care for our armies. 

He was the relentless foe of political corruption, and en- 
deavored to get congress to pass an act to prevent a candidate 
from soliciting votes for himself, or congress conferring on a 
member any office in his state whereby he or any one for his 
benefit should receive any salary, fee or profit. 

Said John Adams : 

''Mr. Gerry was a financier, and had been employed for 
years on the committee of the treasury in the old congress, and 
a most indefatigable member, too. That committee had laid 
the foundation for the present system, and had organized it 
almost as well, though they had not the assistance of clerks and 
other conveniences, as at present." 

He retired from congress in 1780, but was returned in 1783. 
Contrary to the sentiment of his state, he favored the pensions 
to officers of the army, and unsuccessfully labored with Jeffer- 
son to have congress vote the gallant German, General Baron 
Steuben, forty-five thousand dollars toward compensation for 
his great services during the war. 

While in congress he favored every measure to provide 
for our armies, to compensate and reward as well as compli- 
ment the men behind the guns, yet he opposed even a vote of 
thanks to his colleague and personal friend, John Hancock, 
when Hancock retired from the presidency of the congress, on 
the ground that however meritorious and faithful such acts 
as Hancock's were, they but constituted the just conduct of an 
honorable man who accepted the station. 

He drafted the bill authorizing privateering during the 
revolution, which was the initial step toward a national navy. 

He also procured the passage of the act whereby congress 
was vested with power for fifteen years to prohibit imports or 
exports by any nation not in alliance with us. 

After one of the most industrious and distinguished careers 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 057 

of any member of the Continental Congress he made his final 
leave of it in 1785. 

As a member of the constitutional convention he favored 
such amendment of the Articles of Confederation as would 
give a more energetic system of government, but, feeling that 
the constitution went too far, refused to sign it, giving the 
following reasons therefor: 

"My principal objections to the plan are, that there is no 
adequate provision for a representation of the people; that 
they have no security for the right of election; that some of 
the powers of the legislature are ambiguous, and others in- 
definite and dangerous; that the executive is blended with, and 
will have an undue influence over the legislature ; that the 
judicial department will be oppressive ; that treaties of the 
highest importance may be formed by the president, with the 
advice of two-thirds of a quorum of the senate ; and that the 
system is without the security of a bill of rights. These are 
objections which are not local, but apply equally to all the 
states." 

Though defeated in his candidacy for membership in the 
Massachusetts convention called to decide upon ratifying the 
constitution, his recognized ability brought a special invitation 
from that convention to address it and give his views upon ^f^ ^ 

the constitution whose fate was before it. 

He was bitterly assailed for his opposition to the consti- 
tution, and defeated for governor of Massachusetts on account 
of it, but his district in 1789 elected him a representative in the 
first congress of the United States under that constitution. 
After four years service he again retired to private life. 

In 1797 he was recalled to his country's service by being 
sent with John Marshall and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney as 
special commissioner to France, the strained relations of the 
countries demanding men of the greatest capacity, and whose 
long service and known ability had made them illustrious at 
home and abroad. 

When Marshall and Pinckney left that country, Gerry re- 



358 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

mained to prevent an open rupture, if not war, which his tact 
and judgment succeeded in averting. 

Said President Adams : 

"He was nominated and approved, and finally saved the 
peace of the nation, for he alone discovered and furnished the 
evidence that X. T. and Z. were employed by Talleyrand; and 
he alone brought home the direct, formal and official assurances 
upon which the subsequent commission proceeded and peace 
was made." 

In 1810 he was elected Governor of Massachusetts. The op- 
position to the party founded by Jefferson had grown so in- 
tense, that disunion was threatened by some of the Northern 
states. 

It was with extreme reluctance that he again appeared 
before the public, but the spirit of opposition to the national 
government which had been manifested by a party among us ; 
and the attempt which it was very generally said was in con- 
templation, of organizing a coalition of the Northern states 
against the union, he considered as forming another crisis, at 
which he believed it again to be "the duty of every good 
citizen to devote himself to the public good." 

In his address to the legislature he said: 

"When we reflect that the United States are in possession 
of numerous blessings, political, civil and religious, many of 
which are not enjoyed by any other nation; that we are re- 
mote from those scenes of war and carnage, by which Europe 
is vested in sable; that we enjoy the uncontrolled right, on 
principles of true liberty, to form, alter and carry into effect 
our federal and state constitutions ; that founded on them and 
on law, there exists a spirit of toleration, securing to every 
one the undisturbed rights of conscience, and the free exercise 
of religion; that the people, at fixed periods, have the choice 
of their rulers, and can remove those who do wrong; that the 
means of education in all its branches, are liberal, general and 
successful; that their natural strength, resources and powers, 
by proper arrangemeruts, may render these states invincible; 



THE FRAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 259 

that by onr husbandry, commerce, manufactures and me- 
chanical arts, the wealth of this country almost surpasses 
credibility; let us not be prompted by imprudent zealots of 
any description, to hazard the irretrievable loss of all, or of 
any of these inestimable blessings; but let us secure them for- 
ever, with the aid of divine Providence, by rallying around the 
standard of our national government and by encouraging and 
establishing a martial spirit, on the solid foundation of in- 
ternal peace, order and concord." 

His patriotic course resulted in his reelection by an in- 
creased majority in 1811. 

He was what was known in later days as a states' rights 
man, thought farthest removed from carrying that doctrine 
to the point of disunion. He firmly believed in an indestruc- 
tible general government, but also in the indestructibility of 
the rights of the states. 

At this time partisan feeling had become so bitter that, to 
use his own words, "open hostility had been avowed to the gov- 
ernment of the United States." 

He was an intense party man himself, but a patriot. He 
had opposed the constitution, but when his countrymen adopted 
and organized a national government under it, no one gave it 
more loyal or devoted support. Disunion was as abhorrent to 
him as toryism during the revolution. 

In his inaugral in 1811 this great leader of Jeffersonian 
Democracy used this language : 

"To diminish, and if possible, to exterminate party spirit, 
the executive of this commonwealth, during the last year, 
has confirmed in his place, or reappointed when requisite, every 
state officer under its control who had been correct in his con- 
duct, and faithful to his trust ; disregarding his politics, and re- 
quiring only his support of the federal and state constitutions, 
governments and laws, with due regard to the rights of officers 
and individuals subject to his official discretion. But it can- 
not be expected of any executive, so far to disregard the sacred 
obligations of duty arid honor, as to preserve in official stations 



260 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

such individuals as would abuse the influence of their public 
character by sanctioning resistence to law, or by such other 
conduct as will beguile peaceable and happy citizens into a 
state of civil warfare. 

''For our metropolis I have ever entertained an affectionate 
esteem and respect, and regret exceedingly that she has not 
supported the salutary measures of this government of the 
last year. Had this been done, we might have silenced the 
demon of party discord, have manifested such an invincible de- 
termination to preserve our union as would have animated 
our sister states to similar measures and might have de- 
stroyed the germ of every hope to sever the United States." 

"While Gerry was governor of Massachusetts the state was 
redistricted by the legislature in such a manner as to give the 
dominant party in that legislature an unfair advantage in the 
election of new members. One of these districts was so 
stretched out over the state as to resemble a huge salamander. 
Governor Gerry, being the leader of the dominant party, the 
opposition denounced the arrangement as a "Gerrymander." 
Whether it be just or unjust, nothing so appeals to the public 
as an apt illustrative epithet. The humorous aptness of the il- 
lustration in the peculiarly shaped district made the word 
strike home. It gained such universal currency that it crept 
into the dictionary, and has continued ever since to be the 
designation of a method of partisan arrangement of election 
districts without regard to the adjacent situation of territory. 
History credits him, however, with being really opposed to the 
arrangement, instead of being its author. 

In 1812 he was elected vice president of the United States. 

The infirmities of age were creeping upon him, but he had 
said, "It is the duty of every citizen, though he may have 
but one day to live, to devote that day to the service of his 
country," and he gave to that high office the constant atten- 
tion he had shown in the nation's councils in earlier days. 

In less than two years after his elevation to the second 
highest office in the gift of the people whose rights he always 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 261 

jealously cherished, on November 23, 1814, he closed his il- 
lustrious life. 

Nathaniel Gorham 

Nathaniel Gorham was born at Charleston, Massachusetts, 
May 27, 1748. 

After a common-school education he became a successful 
merchant. 

From 1771 to 1775 he was a member of the Massachusetts 
legislature ; from 1778 until the close of the revolution a mem- 
ber of the state board of war ; in 1779 a member of the Massa- 
chusetts constitutional convention ; in 1782-1783, and again 
1785-1787 a member, and in 1786 president of the Continental 
Congress. 

For several years he was judge of the Massachusetts court 
of common pleas. 

He was celebrated for his accomplishments as a presiding 
officer and at Washington's request took his place in the chair 
and occupied it for three months when the convention went 
into committee of the whole to consider the proposed constitu- 
tion. Its ratification had no stronger advocate in the Massa- 
chusetts convention called to decide that momentous question. 

He removed to New York and died at Canandaigua, October 
22, 1826. 

Rufus King 

Rufus King, son of a prosperous merchant, was born in 
Scarborough, Maine, March 24, 1755 ; graduated with distinc- 
tion at Harvard in 1777 ; studied law under the . celebrated 
Theophilus Parsons; and became a member of the Massa- 
chusetts general court, or assembly, in 1788. 

From 1784 until its close, he was a member of the Con- 
tinental Congress, and was the leading spirit to revive the prop- 
osition of Jefferson with regard to prohibiting slavery in the 
"Northwest Territory" that became part of the famous "Or- 
dinance of 1787." 

He was one of the most active, able and eloquent members 



262 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

of the constitutional convention, and did heroic service in se- 
curing the ratification of the constitution by the Massachusetts 
convention. 

He was one of the commissioners to settle the boundary be- 
tween Massachusetts and New York, and to convey the lands 
west of the AUeghanies to the United States. 

Having married Miss Mary Alsop, daughter of John Alsop, 
one of the New York delegates to congress of 1774, he removed 
to New York, and was elected to the United States Senate by 
that state in 1789 ; was reelected in 1795, but resigned, and soon 
after was appointed by Washington minister to England, which 
position he held during the balance of Washington's admin- 
istration, through that of Adams and two years under that of 
Jefferson, proving, during his long service at a critical period 
one of the most efficient diplomats our country ever had. 

He had been one of the strongest supporters of the "Jay 
Treaty" with England while in the senate, and was earnestly 
opposed to the war of 1812, but was among the first to lend 
his aid to the government when war Avas declared. 

In 1808 he was a candidate for vice president ; in 1813 was 
again elected to the United States Senate; in 1816 was de- 
feated for the presidency by James Monroe ; in 1819 was, for 
the fourth time, reelected to the senate; was one of the most 
influential members of the New York constitutional conven- 
tion in 1821, and again sent as minister to England in 1825. 

Of all our early statesmen, none more vigorously and per- 
sistently fought slavery than he. He opposed the admission of 
Missouri as a slave state, and the famous Missouri compro- 
mise. His last effort in the senate was a resolution that the 
proceeds of the sales of public lands be devoted to emancipate 
and remove slaves and free persons of color to a territory out- 
side of the United States. 

lie was one of the most cultured men of his day; a great 
lover of agriculture; an active promoter of the educational 
system of the state of New York and of Columbia college, and 
one of the most devoted supporters and trusted counselors of 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 263 

the Episcopal church, of which he was a member from youth. 
He died at Jamaica, Long Island, April 29, 1827. 

Caleb Strong' 

Among the pioneers of Southampton, Massachusetts, noted 
for piety, industry and nobility of character, were the an- 
cestors of Caleb Strong. 

For many years his grandfather was first ruling elder of the 
church. As time progressed the members of the family became 
among the most prosperous and prominent people of the com- 
munity. There Caleb Strong was born, January 9, 1745. 

Graduating from Harvard in 1764, he adopted the pro- 
fession of law, was admitted to the bar in 1772, and from 1776 
to 1780 was attorney of Northampton county. 

During the Eevolutionary War he was a member of the 
general court and committee of safety. 

In 1779 he was a conspicuous and efficient member of the 
convention that framed the first constitution of Massachusetts. 
From 1780 to 1789 a member of and recognized leader in the 
state senate. In 1781 was appointed to and declined a seat on 
the bench of the Massachusetts supreme court. From 1789 to 
1796, when he resigned, he was United States senator, and 
widely known as one of the most eloquent and able of Federal- 
ists. In 1800 he was elected governor of Massachusetts, an- 
nually reelected until 1807, and again from 1812 to 1816, being 
eleven times elected to that high office. 

He bitterly opposed the war of 1812, and, while governor, 
refused to furnish the quota of troops from his state on re- 
quest of President Madison, giving as his reason that the 
governor of the state, not the president, should judge when 
the militia should be called out in defense of the country, and 
when called should be commanded by its own officers. When, 
however, the national troops were withdrawn from Massa- 
chusetts, he made abundant provision for its defense by the 
state militia. 

The Confederate governors of the Civil War were not the 



264 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

first to raise rebellious authority against the national gov- 
ernment. 

He was one of the supporters of the famous "Hartford 
convention," in 1814, where it is both charged and denied 
nullification and secession were first advocated, 

Ketiring from the governorship, he returned to and prac- 
ticed his profession until his death, November 17, 1819, 

He early united with the church of which his ancestors 
were devoted members, and "uniformly adorned the doctrine 
of God by his exemplary life and his soundness in the faith." 

For ten years he was president of the Hampshire Missionary 
Society; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences and the Massachusetts Historical Society, 

He was a man of profound learning — a life-long student, 
and every educational enterprise found in him an active 
friend. 

His great ability and previous experience in framing the 
constitution and drafting the laws of his state made him a 
valuable member of the national convention. 

He married Sarah, daughter of Rev, John Hooker, of his 
native town, and was siirvived by six of their nine children. 

From Connecticut 
Oliver Ellsworth 

Oliver Ellsworth was born at Windsor, Connecticut, April 
29, 1745, and died there November 26, 1807, 

Ninety-five years before, his ancestor, Josiah Ellsworth, 
came from England to Windsor. His early years were those 
of a farmer boy on his father's farm. After two years at 
Yale he went to and graduated at Princeton in 1766. His 
parents prepared him for the ministry, and he studied theology 
for a year after graduation, but the law was his final choice. 
To pay the debts incurred in his education he cut and floated 
lumber to Hartford. His early progress was slow; he was not 
admitted to the bar until 1771. After his marriage to Miss 



THE FRAMITRS OF THE CONSTITUTION 265 

Abigail Wolcott, he rented, and with his own hands fenced in a 
small farm from which he supported his family while 
struggling to gain a practice. This at length became the 
largest in the state, he was universally recognized as its leading 
advocate, and became its attorney general. 

In 1775 he was elected to the general assembly, and in 1777 
to the Continental Congress, where he signed the articles of 
confederation, and of which he continued a prominent mem- 
ber during the six years he served in it, serving on its most 
important committees, especially that of appeals, and ably 
aiding Robert Morris in his financial schemes for the govern- 
ment. 

From 1780 to 1784 he was a member of the governor's coun- 
cil of Connecticut, in 1784 was chosen judge of the superior 
court, and in 1789 one of the judges of that state's supreme 
court. 

In the convention he objected to the word "national," and 
proposed the name of "the government of the United States," 
and was said by John C. Calhoun to be one of the men who 
gave us a federal instead of a national government. 

He wished the constitution to be offered as an amendment 
of the Articles of Confederation, and to be ratified by the legis- 
latures of the states, instead of by conventions, the idea be- 
ing to make it a compact of the states rather than the instru- 
ment of the people. The states' rights theory had no abler 
advocate in the convention. He favored leaving the question 
of slavery to the states, and denied the power of congress 
to coerce a state. He also advocated an executive council to 
assist, if not control, the president, and a council of revision, 
composed of the president and judges of the supreme court, 
whose duty should be to pass upon the constitutionality of the 
acts of congress. He was jealous of the dominance of the 
larger states, and to his firm, yet cool-headed persistence was 
largely due the equality given the states in the United States 
senate. He contended that the general government could be 
maintained only by the preservation of the local self govern- 



366 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PEAMEES 

ment of the states. When James Wilson said, "We are form- 
ing a government for men^ and not for imaginary beings called 
states," and Rufus King sneered at "the phantom of state 
sovereignty," he said his "happiness depended upon the ex- 
istence of the states as much as a new born infant on its 
mother for nourishment. ' ' 

In the Connecticut convention called to ratify the consti- 
tution, he was- a leading advocate in its favor, urging it as the 
only means to save Connecticut from the rapacity of New York 
on the one side and Massachusetts on the other, saying, "If we 
do not unite, we shall be like Issachar of old, a strong ass 
crouching down between two burdens." 

As chairman of the committee therefor, he drafted the 
bill to organize the judicial system of the United States, This 
original bill, in his own hand writing, was passed with but few 
changes in its provisions, and is yet one of the treasured 
documents in the archives of the government. Said Justice 
Stephen J. Field, of this famous judiciary act of 1789, "That 
great act was penned by Oliver Ellsworth. It may be said to 
reflect the views of the founders of the republic as to the proper 
relations between the federal and state courts." 

Daniel Webster, in the senate, said he was "A man who 
left on the records of the government of his country abundant 
proofs of the clearest intelligence, and of the utmost purity and 
integrity of character." 

A recent biographer, that "for strength of reason, for 
sagacity, wisdom and sound good sense in the conduct of af- 
fairs, for moderation of temper and general ability, it may be 
doubted if New England has yet produced his superior." 

He was one of Connecticut's first United States senators, a 
zealous Federalist, and John Adams said, "the firmest pillar 
of Washington 's whole administration in the senate. ' ' He was 
the author of the measure to prevent importations from Rhode 
Island into the United States that brought that state, the last 
of the original thirteen, into the union. His knowledge of con- 
stitutional law was so profound, his standing and influence in 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 267 

the senate of such character, that Aaron Burr said, "if he 
should chance to spell the name of the Deity with two t's it 
would take the senate three weeks to expunge the superfluous 
letter." He was also called the "Cerberus of the treasury." 

He was tall, erect, with firm and penetrating blue eyes, and 
great dignity of manner. His life was plain, simple and un- 
affected. Patient, attentive and laborious, he was endowed 
with great powers of analysis and argument. He, himself, said 
he had no imagination. He thought slowly, but mastered every 
subject he sought to present, and when he did speak, his 
reasoning was so clear and convincing, his logic so unanswer- 
able, that his speeches, unadorned with any flowers of rhetoric, 
were more lasting in their influence, if not so attractive in de- 
livery, as the impassioned efforts of those honored as orators. 
This made him one of the most formidable debaters of his day. 
Though a grave and earnestly religious man of the New Eng- 
land type, he was gifted with rare conversational powers and 
socially much esteemed. He was of domestic nature, especially 
fond of children and devoted to his family. His intellectual 
eminence never carried him above the charm of the simple and 
affectionate home life that he held higher than all his public 
honors. 

March 4, 1796, he was the third appointed, second confirmed 
chief justice of the supreme court of the United States, and in 
the same year was one of those voted for in the electoral col- 
lege for president. 

In 1799 he was sent as envoy extraordinary to France with 
William R. Davie and William Vans Murray, and in 1800, on 
his return, suffering from ill health, he resigned as chief justice. 
He was thereupon made a member of the governor's council 
of Connecticut, and in 1807 offered the office of chief justice of 
that state, but his feebleness forbade accepting it. 

He was a man of purest Christian character, and of untir- 
ing industry as a student. His classical education was but the 
prelude to a life of constant, studious research. His bom 
ability was great, but his reliance was not upon natural en- 



268 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

dowment. He went to the bottom of every subject he under- 
took to pass judgment upon. By constant and painstaking in- 
dustry, freedom from false pride, and worth of character he 
rose from the farmer's boy to the loftiest place in his profes- 
sion, and for all time left the impress of his noble work upon 
the institutions of the nation of which he was one of the 
founders, and its constitution, of which he was a conspicuous 
framer, always firm supporter, and an illustrious interpreter. 

His imperative duties as a judge of the highest court in his 
state called him home, and thus prevented his signature to the 
constitution he had done so much to shape in its enduring 
form. 

William Samuel Johnson 

"William Samuel Johnson was born at Stratford, Con- 
necticut, October 7, 1727, and there died November 14, 1819. 

Robert Johnson, his grandfather, from Kingston-on-HuU, 
England, settled at New Haven in 1637. 

Samuel Johnson, his father, was one of the early students at 
Yale, from which he graduated in 1714; became an author of 
leading text books for colleges ; the first teacher and president 
of King's (now Columbia) college. New York, and noted, not 
only as a leading minister, but the first educator of his day. 

His mother was the daughter of Colonel Richard Floyd, of 
Brookhaven, Long Island. 

He graduated at Yale in 1744; studied theology, then law, 
which he chose as his profession, and in which he rose to the 
first rank. 

His legislative career began in 1761, when he was elected 
to the lower house of the Connecticut legislature, in 1765 be- 
ing sent to the upper house, and reelected thereto in 1766. 

In 1765 he was a member of the ''Stamp Act Congress." In 
1766 he was sent to England as special counsel of Connecticut 
to recover the title to a large tract of land in the possession 
of the Mohican Indians, in which, after five years skillful effort, 
he succeeded. 

During his stay in London he formed intimate friendships 



THE FKAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 309 

with many of the leading literary celebrities, lawyers and 
statesmen of the time, especially with the celebrated Dr. 
Samuel Johnson, between whom a cordial life-long cor- 
respondence was kept up. 

In 1772 he was elected judge of the superior court of Con- 
necticut, His wide legal research enabled him as lawyer and 
judge to enrich the legal literature of his state by frequent 
citations of the civil law, generally unknown at the time to the 
American bar. 

He was opposed to separation from Great Britain, and did 
all in his power to prevent it, and avert war. "When inde- 
pendence was declared he resigned from the Connecticut coun- 
cil, and retired to Stratford, abandoning professional and pub- 
lic life until the war was over. 

His position during the revolution was peculiarly trying. 
He was devoted to his country, yet could not conscientiously 
join in the war against England. It was only the exalted purity 
of his character, the honesty of his life and the loftiness of its 
purposes, universally known and recognized, that saved him 
from the odium visited upon the Tories in general. 

After the war he resumed professional practice, was one of 
the few men who took sides with England who were ever re- 
stored to popular favor, and in 1784 was again elected to the 
upper house of the general assembly, and also to the Con- 
tinental Congress, in which he was an influential member from 
that time to May, 1787. His vast learning and great ability 
made him a leading figure in that congress, as it did in the con- 
stitutional convention. He was chairman of the committee of 
style and arrangement, known as the "grand committee," to 
revise the final phraseology of the constitution, proposed the 
formation of the senate as a separate body, and gave of his 
culture and genius to the formation of every part of the con- 
stitution. 

In May, 1787, he was chosen first president of Columbia 
college under its new charter, as his father had been under the 
old, and displayed an administrative and executive ability in 



270 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

its management, not inferior to his illustrious sire. Though 
president of this college, he retained his citizenship in Con- 
necticut, kept up an important law business there, and in 1789 
was elected one of the first United States senators from 
that state. To the universal regret of the people of that state 
and his associates in the senate, he resigned from that body in 
1793 to give attention to the exacting duties and urgent needs 
of Columbia college. 

Resigning that arduous post of honor, he returned to Strat- 
ford, where he passed the remainder of an always busy life. The 
ablest men of the country sought his illuminating aid on po- 
litical and legal questions, and the educator, the man of litera- 
ture and the ecclesiastic, as well, claimed his frequent kindred 
aid. 

He was a large man, of magnificent presence, possessed of 
every accomplishment the best culture and most eminent as- 
sociations in America and England could add to and impart, 
and unsurpassed as an orator. 

No man of his day was more highly regarded, both in Eng- 
land and America for superior scholarly attainments, purity of 
character and sincerity of Christian life. 

His scholarship and learning were honored, not only 
throughout America, but by the great universities of England. 
He received the high honor of D. C. L. from Oxford in 1776, 
and was the first graduate of Yale to receive from it the degree 
LL.D., as his father had been the first to receive from it the 
degree of D.D. 

He was born, reared and lived in an intellectual and 
Christian atmosphere. 

Said a distinguished eulogist : 

"He had a keen perception of what he dwelt upon in his 
published addresses to the graduating classes of Columbia 
college, that the first duty of man is owed to heaven, to his 
Creator and Redeemer, and he practiced that duty in all the 
posts of honor and responsibility which he was called to fill. 
He was on this account the more noble. For a Christian states- 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 271 

man is the glory of the age, and the memory of his deeds and 
virtues will reflect a light coming from a source which neither 
clouds can dim nor shadoAVS obscure." 

Boger Sherman 

If it is great to be great, but greater to be good, Roger 
Sherman's life was the acme of human achievement, for he was 
both, and he became both, not by natural bent, nor by oppor- 
tunity thrust upon him, but by heroic self-conquest, and by 
long, long years of laborious application while others slept or 
followed pleasure's seductive lead. 

He was one of the best specimens of that class, whom 
America hails as "self-made men," and crowns with Ler demo- 
cratic regard. 

No illustrious character in our country's history was bur- 
dened with fewer frailties, yet the burden of those born frailties 
was self -shaken, thrown from his own shoulders by his own in- 
domitable will, by his making it a life motto, "Know thyself 
and make thy better self the master." 

No public career better illustrates Wagner's portrayal of 
the "Simple Life," the genius of common sense, or furnishes 
a more striking example of the absence of that false pride 
which has marred the character of so many eminent men. 

His father was a small farmer and shoemaker, and he 
learned his trade in his father's shop. While a member of the 
Continental Congress the committee of which he was a member 
was examining the army accounts, one of which was a con- 
tract to supply shoes. He explained to the committee that the 
charges were excessive, showing in detail the cost of the ma- 
terials and labor. The committee expressing its surprise over 
the fullness of his information, he quietly told them that -he 
had learned the trade of a shoemaker, and spoke from prac- 
tical experience. 

Neither proud nor ashamed of his lowly employment in 
early life, he never played the part of a demagogue in referring 
to it to win the applause of public clamor, nor blushed to 



372 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

acknowledge it when occasion called. Nor was his plainness 
of habit from parsimony or policy, but the purest principle. 

The branch of the Sherman family to which Roger Sher- 
man belonged came from Dedham, Essex county, England, and 
settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, about 1634. He was 
born in Newton, Massachusetts, April 19, 1721. 

His only education was in the common schools of the coun- 
try. This was supplemented by the aid of one of that most 
useful class of men, who did so much for the early culture of 
our country — the New England minister. 

The Rev. Samuel Dunbar, pastor of the church which his 
family attended, noting his precocity and bent for study, by 
his influence and the use of his library contributed to the cul- 
ture of this pious and earnest young man, who was admitted 
to his church at the age of twenty-one, and who during his long 
and conspicuous life was noted for his unostentatious and 
sincere piety. 

In mental habits and characteristics he was more like 
Benjamin Franklin than any man of his day. Early in life 
he became a constant reader, a diligent student, and eventually 
became proficient in geography, history, mathematics, 
astronomy, in the general principles of philosophy and the- 
ology, and especially in law and politics, which were his 
favorite studies. It is said he was accustomed to sit at his 
work with an open book before him, devoting every moment to 
study that his eyes could be spared from his occupation. 

He settled up his father's estate, and in 1743 moved to and 
became a merchant in New Milford, Connecticut, which busi- 
ness he followed until 1754. From this experience he wrote 
a little book, in which he condemned the use of paper money 
with which the colonies were flooded, and advocated the use of 
a sound currency as the only true basis for successful busi- 
ness, as has since been held by the ablest financiers and states- 
men of the world. 

His becoming a lawyer was due to one of those chance 
events that have so often proved to be the turning points in 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 273 

great men's lives, and to the suggestion of, probably, the first 
lawyer he ever consulted. A neighbor requested him, on visit- 
ing the county town, to get the advice of an eminent lawyer in 
regard to settling up an estate. As was his habit, he wrote out 
a statement of the case, and in the consultation frequently 
referred to this paper. The lawyer asked to see it, and read- 
ing it over said it was so clear a legal document that, with 
but few formal changes it was as good a petition to present 
to the court as any one could draw, and advised young Sher- 
man to study law, which he did. 

He was admitted to the bar in 1754, and in the same year 
was made a justice of the peace and a member of the quorum, 
or county court. He was as thoroughly a colony, or states' 
rights man as could be found in the colonies, up to the meeting 
of the constitutional conA^ention, and at first, in it, he advocated 
as few changes as possible in the articles of confederation. But 
he was a man open to educational conviction, and he left that 
convention as strong a nationalist as was in it. 

The next year, 1755, as a member of the General Assembly 
of Connecticut he began that conspicuous political career 
which closed with his death while a United States senator from 
that state nearly forty years thereafter. 

In 1740 he was married to Elizabeth Hartwell, by whom he 
had seven children. 

In 1759 was appointed judge of the court of common pleas 
of Litchfield county. 

In 1761 he moved to New Haven and returned to com- 
mercial life, but in 1765 resumed judicial life as judge of the 
court of common pleas. 

From 1765 to 1776 he was treasurer of Yale college, and 
had the degree of M.A. conferred upon him by that college 
in 1768. 

He was elected mayor of New Haven, after its incorpora- 
tion, and so continued as long as he lived. 

From 1764 to 1766 he was a member of the legislature of 
New Haven, in the latter year elected to the upper house 



274 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

thereof, of which he continued to be a member for nineteen 
years. 

For twenty-three years he was annually elected a judge 
of the superior court, resigning his seat to take one in the 
United States congress. He was never removed from a single 
office, except by being promoted. 

In 1763, having lost his first wife, he was married to Re- 
becca Prescott, a relative of the historian, William H. Prescott, 
by whom he had eight children. 

She was a woman of remarkable beauty, and endowed, as 
was his first wife, with unusual virtues of head and heart. 

It is related that while she was with her husband at the 
seat of government she attended a dinner given by General 
Washington, to which she was escorted by the general, and 
had the seat of honor on his right. Madam Hancock was also 
a guest and complained to his secretary that that distinction 
belonged to her and that she had been slighted. Washington 
hearing of her complaint replied that it was his place to give 
his arm to the handsomest woman in the room. It is not told 
how this remark soothed the ruffled feathers of the indignant 
dame. 

In 1776 he was appointed a judge of the superior court, 
an office he held until 1789, during the last four years of 
which having as associate Oliver Ellsworth, thereafter chief 
justice of the supreme court of the United States, and who al- 
ways spoke of Mr. Sherman as the one man whom he revered 
above all the men he ever met. 

He was one of the first to urge the union of the colonies 
and entire independence, strenuously contending that parlia- 
ment had no right to legislate for the colonies in any ease. 
}(■ Others were more admired for brilliancy of imagination, 
splendor of eloquence, and the graces of polished society; but 
there was no one, even in that assemblage of eminent char- 
acters, whose judgment was more respected, or whose opinions 
were more influential. The boldness of his counsels, the de- 
cisive weight of his character, the steadiness of his principles, 






THE FKAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 275 

the inflexibility of his patriotism, his venerable appearance, 
and his republican manners, presented to the imagination the 
idea of a Roman senator in the early and most exemplary days 
of the commonwealth. 

In the business of committees, generally so arduous and 
fatiguing, he was undoubtedly one of the most serviceable 
and indefatigable members of that body. His unwearied ap- 
plication, the remarkable perseverance with which he pur- 
sued and completed matters confided to his investigation, and 
the regular system by which all his proceedings were gov- 
erned, when joined to his great prudence, acknowledged 
talents and unshaken virtues, attracted universal confidence; 
hence a large and important share of the public business, par- 
ticularly when referred to committees, was assigned to him. 
No man served on a larger number of committees or did more 
useful and distinguished work. ^ 

Among the principal of these committees in 1776 were those 
to prepare instructions for the army in Canada, to establish 
regulations of the trade of the united colonies, to regulate the 
currency of the country, to purchase and furnish supplies for 
the army, to devise ways and means for providing ten million 
dollars for the expenses of the current year, to concert a plan 
of military operations for the campaign of 1776, to prepare 
articles of confederation, to visit army headquarters, examine 
into the state of the army and the best means of supplying its 
wants, to prepare the Declaration of Independence, etc., etc. 

He was the only man who signed the four principal epoch- 
making documents in American history that parallel the 
Magna Charta — the Articles of Association of 1774, the Decla- 
ration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the 
Constitution. 

In the Continental Congress he favored the compromise 
plan of selecting representatives of the different states ac- 
cording to population, which eleven years later was adopted in 
the constitutional convention, and was annually elected to 



376 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

that congress from 1774 to 1781, and again returned in 1783, 
servimg in all eight years. 

In 1783, with Richard Law, he revised the laws of Con- 
necticut. In 1789 he was elected a representative in the 
United States Congress, and in 1791 he was elected to the 
Senate of the United States, and continued a member of that 
body until his death. 
-V^ During all this long period, as was the custom at that time, 
he held different offices, state and national, at the same time, 
and his faithful discharge of the onerous duties of each position 
bears witness to his indefatigable industry and prodigious la- 
bor. During the nineteen years he was a member of the upper 
house of the Connecticut assembly he was also judge of the 
superior court; during eight of these years he was delegate 
to the Continental Congress; and for two years that he was 
a delegate in congress, he was a member of the council of 
safety. And the last year that he was delegate in Congress he 
was mayor of the city of New Haven. 

To have held so many, and so important offices, for so long a 
time, shows the high regard which the people of Connecticut 
had for his abilities and integrity. But it was not merely by 
citizens of his own state that he was held in high esteem. In 
the Continental Congress he took rank at once with the ablest 
men from all parts of the country, and was placed on the most 
important committees. He formed intimate friendships with 
the great revolutionary leaders of the North and South — with 
John Adams, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee, by all of 
whom he was held in highest regard. 
-^ He took an active and influential part in the debates of 

the various assemblies of which he was a member, and his in- 
fluence with their eminent orators and statesmen was pre- 
eminently great, yet he possessed probably the fewest graces 
as an orator of any man of his day. He was reserved, bashful, 
unemotional, awkward in gesture and without charm of voice, 
but his utterances were so replete with practical common sense, 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 277 

SO full of wisdom in briefest words that he always commanded 
universal attention and the profoundest respect. 

His oratory was not that which thrills and delights, but 
logic that clings to the memory and conquers conviction. 

It has been said that he seldom failed to procure the adop- 
tion of any measure which he advocated, and which he con- 
sidered conducive to the public good. 

Dr. Dwight, of Yale, said he was remarkable for not speak- 
ing in debate without suggesting something new and im- 
portant, which often gave a different character to the discus- 
sion. No declamation disconcerted him. He was essentially 
of judicial mind, cool, attentive, deliberate, impartial. No 
sophistry could mislead him. Hence with unbiased and un- 
erring accuracy he went to and disclosed the core of every 
question that he discussed. 

Humor entered but little into his serious life. Thoughtful- 
ness distinguished his every movement. This and his spotless 
integrity made him a constant power for good. 

George Bancroft, in his history of the Constitution of the 
United States, speaking of the members of the Constitutional 
Convention, says : 

"Roger Sherman was a unique man. No one in the con- 
vention had so large an experience in legislation for the United 
States. There was in him kindheartedness and industry, pene- 
tration and close reasoning, and unclouded intellect, su- 
periority to passion, intrepid patriotism, solid judgment, and 
a directness which went straight to its end. In the conven- 
tion he never made long speeches, but would intuitively seize 
on the turning point of the question, and present it in terse 
language, which showed his own opinion and the strength on 
which it rested." 

John Adams, in his celebrated diary thus speaks of Mf. 
Sherman and his oratory. ''Sherman's air is the reverse of 
grace; there cannot be a more striking contrast to beautiful 
action than the motion of his hands; generally he stands up- 
right, with his hands before him, and the fingers of his left 



378 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEE3 

hand clinched into a fist, and the wrist of it grasped with his 
right. But he has a clear head, and sound .judgment ; but 
when he moves his hand in anything like action, Hogarth's 
genius could not have invented a motion more opposite to 
grace. It is stiffness and awkwardness itself, rigid as starched 
lineA or buckram; awkward as a junior bachelor or a sopho- 
more." 

It was a common saying in New Haven that when Mr. 
Sherman was interested in speaking, his gesture was that of 
a shoemaker drawing a thread. And yet singularly enough, 
the greatest admirers of this awkward man were the foremost 
orators of his day. 

Patrick Henry, when a member of the Continental Congress, 
said, "The first men in that body were Washington, Richard 
Henry Lee and Roger Sherman," and later in life that Roger 
Sherman and George Mason were the greatest statesmen he 
ever knew. 

John Adams, in a letter to his wife, speaks of him as, ' ' That 
old Puritan, as honest as an angel, and as firm in the cause 
of American independence as Mount Atlas." 

Mr. Sedgwick said, "Roger Sherman was a man of the 
selectest wisdom that I ever knew, no law or part of law that 
Mr. Sherman favored failed to be enacted." Fisher Ames 
said that if he happened to be out of his seat when a subject 
was discussed, and came in when the question was about to 
be taken, he always felt safe in voting as Mr. Sherman did, for 
he always voted right. 

Chief Justice Ellsworth said he made Roger Sherman the 
faithful model of his life. 

Thomas Jefferson, pointing him out to a friend, while con- 
gress was sitting in Philadelphia, said, "That is Mr. Sherman 
of Connecticut, a man who never said a foolish thing in his 
life." 

Senator Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, said, "Roger 
Sherman has more common sense than any man I ever knew." 

As a theologian his rank was high. The celebrated Dr. 



^ 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 379 

Jonathan Edwards said that in the course of a long and in- 
timate acquaintance he was materially instructed by Mr. Sher- 
man's observations on the principal subjects of doctrinal and 
practical divinity, adding, "In short, whether we consider him 
in public or private life, whether we consider him as a poli- 
tician, or a Christian, he was a great and good man." 

Said John C. Calhoun, in the United States Senate, "Who 
are the men of those states to whom we are indebted for this 
admirable government? I will name them; their names ought 
to be engraved in brass and live forever. They are Chief 
Justice Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, 
and "William Paterson, of New Jersey." 

And no man in public life was held in higher confidence 
or treated with greater esteem and respect by Washington 
than Roger Sherman. 

His great service was in reconciling the differences that 
arose between his colleagues, and inducing mutual concessions 
on the part of those who held opposing views. While a man of 
unusual firmness in formed opinions he was far from stubborn 
in adhering to them. He appreciated to the fullest the value 
of learning from others, and was ready to modify his views if 
his reason were convinced. This is shown by his objecting to 
the constitution deviating too much from the articles of con- 
federation when he first entered the convention, and becoming 
during its progress an ardent supporter of its more vigorous 
national features. >^ 

His method of address is somewhat shown by these ex- 
tracts from Madison's notes of the debates in the convention. 
"The question is, not what rights naturally belonged to men, 
but how they can be more equally and effectually guarded in 
society, and if some give tip more than others in order to 
obtain this end, there can be no room for complaint. To do 
otherwise, to require an equal concession from all, if it would 
create danger to the rights of some, would be sacrificing the 
end to the means. The rich man who enters into society along 
with the poor man gives up more than the poor man, yet with 



280 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

an equal vote lie is equally safe. Were he to have more votes 
than the poor man, in proportion to his superior stake, the 
rights of the poor man would immediately cease to be secure. 
This consideration prevailed when the articles of confedera- 
tion were formed." 

' ' Popular opinion is founded in justice, and the only way to 
know if the popular opinion is in favor of a measure, is to ex- 
amine whether it is just and right in itself. I believe that what- 
ever is just and right, the people will judge of and comply 
with. The people wish that the government may derive sup- 
port from the justice of its measures, and they have given it 
support on that account." 

He was prone to put his thoughts on paper, thus acquiring 
the most condensed form of expression, and was a constant 
reader. At every session of congress he made it a habit to buy 
a Bible, daily read it, and at the close, present it to some 
member of the family. 

Is not this, and the similar familiarity of Lincoln with Holy 
"Writ, striking evidence of their forceful and felicitous forms 
of expression? 

Among his many epigrams is, ''Better die in a good cause 
than live in a bad one." 

When Benjamin Franklin moved that henceforth prayers 
imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on the 
deliberations of the convention, be held every morning before 
proceeding to business, and that one or more of the clergy of 
Philadelphia be requested to officiate in that service, Mr. 
Sherman seconded the motion. Alexander Hamilton and 
several others expressed their* apprehension, that, however 
proper such action might have been at the beginning of the 
convention, it might at that late day, in the first place, bring 
on adverse criticism; and, in the second, lead the public to 
believe that the embarrassments and dissensions in the con- 
vention had reached an acute stage, to which Mr. Sherman 
replied that past omission of duty could not justify its con- 
tinued omission; that the rejection of such a proposition 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 281 

would expose the convention to more unpleasant animadver- 
sions than the adoption of it, and that the alarm out of doors 
that might be excited for the state of things within would be 
more likely to do good than ill. 

It appears that Mr. Sherman discovered, at an early date, 
many radical defects in the old confederation, although he was 
a member of the committee by which it was framed. A manu- 
script left among his papers, and containing a series of proposi- 
tions prepared by him for the amendment of the old articles 
of confederation, the greater part of which are incorporated 
in substance in the new constitution, displays the important 
part which he acted in the general convention of 1787. 

"That, in addition to the legislative powers vested in 
congress by the articles of confederation, the legislature of 
the United States be authorized to make laws to regulate the 
commerce of the United States with foreign nations, and 
among the several states in the union; to impose duties on 
foreign goods and commodities imported into the United 
States and on papers passing through the postoffice; for rais- 
ing a revenue and to regulate the collection thereof, and apply 
the same to the payment of the debts due from the United 
States, and for supporting the government, and other neces- 
sary charges of the union." 

"To make laws binding on the people of the United States, 
and on the courts of law, and other magistrates and officers, 
civil and military, within the several states, in all eases which 
concern the common interests of the United States ; but not to 
interfere with the government of the individual states, in 
matters of internal police which respect the government of such 
states only, and wherein the general welfare of the United 
States is not affected." 

"That the laws of the United States ought, as far as may be 
consistent with the common interests of the Union, to be carried 
into execution by the judiciary and executive officers of the 
respective states, wherein the execution thereof is required." 

"That the legislature of the United States be authorized to 



382 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

institute one supreme tribunal, and such other tribunals as 
they may judge necessary for the purpose aforesaid, and 
ascertain their respective powers and jurisdiction." 

"That the legislatures of the individual states ought not to 
possess a right to emit bills of credit for a currency, or to make 
any tender laws for the payment or discharge of debts or 
contracts, in any manner different from the agreement of the 
parties, unless for payment of the value of the thing contracted 
for, in current money, agreeable to the standard that shall be 
allowed by the legislature of the United States, or in any 
manner to obstruct or impede the recovery of debts, whereby 
the interests of foreigners, or the citizens of any other state, 
may be affected." 

"That, if any state shall refuse or neglect to furnish its 
quota of supplies, upon requisition made by the legislature of 
the United States, agreeably to the articles of the Union, that 
the said legislature be authorized to order the same to be levied 
and collected of the inhabitants of such state, and to make such 
rules and orders as may be necessary for that purpose." 

"That the legislature of the United States have power to 
make laws for calling forth such aid from the people, from 
time to time, as may be necessary to assist the civil officers in 
the execution of the laws of the United States; and annex 
suitable penalties to be inflicted in case of disobedience." 

"That no person shall be liable to be tried for any criminal 
offence, committed within any of the United States, in any 
other state than that wherein the offence shall be committed, 
nor be deprived of the privilege of trial by a jury, by virtue of 
any law of the United States." 

A proposition having been made to introduce a clause into 
the constitution, conferring upon the people the unalienable 
right of instructing their representatives, Mr. Sherman opposed 
it with great ability. He urged that it w^ould mislead the 
people, by conveying an idea that they possessed the right of 
controlling the debates of the legislature, a right destructive to 
the objects of their meeting; that the duty of a representative 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 283 

was to consult, and agree, with others from the diiferent parts 
of the Union, relative to such acts as might be beneficial to the 
whole community; that, if they were to be guided by instruc- 
tions, there would be no use in deliberation, and a representa- 
tive would consider nothing more necessary than to produce 
these instructions, lay them on the table, and let them speak 
for him ; that the duty of a good representative was to inquire 
what measures would best tend to promote the general welfare, 
and, after he had discovered, to give them his support; that, 
if his instructions should coincide with his ideas of any 
measure, they would be unnecessary, and, if they were contrary 
to the conviction of his OAvn mind, he would be bound by every 
principle of justice to disregard them. Hence he considered 
it a fixed doctrine, that the right of the people to consult for 
the common good, can go no further than to petition the legis- 
lature for a redress of grievances. His opinion was confirmed 
by a large majority. 

The Connecticut convention called to pass upon the ratifica- 
tion of the Constitution discussed it section by section, and to 
his plain, clear and able explanation, and his great influence 
is largely due its ratification by that State. At the close of his 
part of the debate he said, — 

"I do not suppose the constitution to be perfect, nor do I 
imagine, if Congress and all the legislatures on the continent 
were to revise it, that their united labors would make it perfect. 
I do not expect any perfection, on this side the grave, in the 
works of man; but we are not at present, in circumstances to 
make it better." 

His study and mastery of himself is thus testified to by 
one of his great biographers : 

"It is improbable, indeed, that a man, whose early youth 
had been systematically employed in the acquisition of knowl- 
edge and the practice of important private duties, and whose 
maturer years had been devoted to ripening the inestimable 
germ, could, in any situation of life, have wilfully acted other- 
wise than right. At that critical period in the life of man, 



284 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

when his passions are most untractable, and his reason least 
effective; — when experience has not taught him to avoid the 
quick-sands and temptations of the world ; — without the foster- 
ing hand of a father to regulate his conduct, or the curb of 
education to check his evil propensities; — at that eventful 
period, when the tenor of his earthly pilgrimage is, perhaps, 
conclusively established — Roger Sherman planted in a fertile 
soil, those seeds of virtue which bloomed forth in a rich and 
luxuriant harvest. He resisted the allurements, and escaped 
the snares, which afflict and beset the progress of human 
nature; — he buffeted the temptations which throng, in count- 
less swarms, around the path of the young and inexperienced; 
— and he triumphantly conquered a constitutional efferves- 
cence of the passions, which might have led a less energetic 
mind into misery and disgrace. In his early days, he imbibed 
a remarkable inclination for reading, and studious meditation ; 
— a propensity which, if diligently pursued, stamps an honor- 
able character upon youth, even before the embers which they 
are feeding have been fanned into a flame. Mr. Sherman 
remarked to his family, that before he had attained the age of 
twenty-one years, he learned to control and govern his pas- 
sions; and his great and important achievement, he ascribed, 
in a considerable degree, to the perusal of Dr. "Watt's excellent 
treatise upon that subject. It cannot be denied that his success 
in this momentous contest, upon the issue of which all his best 
and dearest interests were at stake, was certain and decisive. 
His passions were naturally strong; but, notwithstanding the 
vehemence of feeling thus originally planted in his breast, he 
was habitually calm, sedate, and self-governed; — mild and 
agreeable in society; — universally benevolent in his regards 
towards his fellowmen. 

"The foundation of his usefulness as a man, and his dis- 
tinction as a statesman, was integrity, which, at an early period, 
formed one of the principal ground works of his character, 
and was founded upon religious principle. All his actions 
seem to have been preceded by a rigorous self-examination, 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 285 

and the secret interrogatories of 'What is right?' — 'AVhat 
course ought I to pursue?' He never propounded to himself 
the questions of 'How will it affect my interest?' — 'Will it be 
popular?' Hence his reputation for integrity was so unques- 
tionable, that, in all the various decisions of public questions 
in which he had a voice, it is not probable that any man sus- 
pected him of a selfish bias, or of sinister motives, however 
strongly he may have been opposed to the measures which Mr. 
Sherman considered it his duty to support. This high quality, 
which is one of the most essential supports of religion and 
morality, and without which, no redeeming virtues can elevate 
man from his abasement, will, at least in some degree, account 
for the extraordinary influence which he enjoyed in delib- 
erative bodies. He possessed the essential requisite of an 
orator, mentioned by Cicero ; — he was universally considered, 
and was in fact, a good man. When he reasoned, and expressed 
his opinion on any subject, no apprehensions were entertained 
by his hearers that anything was concealed with a view to 
mislead, or that one reason was assigned, while a different one 
influenced his decision. Hence the arguments, which appeared 
satisfactory to his own dispassionate judgment, produced a 
powerful effect, and were peculiarly qualified, as well from 
their nature as the source from which they proceeded, to satisfy 
the minds of others." 

A great source of his power was self-control, evenness of 
temper and catholicity of spirit which enabled him to keep on 
good terms with those from whom he differed, even on theo- 
logical questions. These qualities were seen in their highest 
manifestation and in their most beneficent effects in the 
Constitutional Convention of 1787. 

Many anecdotes are related of his self-control. At family 
prayers he boxed the ears of one of his children who was 
making a disturbance. Thereupon his mother, whose mind 
had become enfeebled by age, walked across the room and 
boxed his ears, saying, "You strike your child and I strike 
mine." The worship went on as if nothing had happened. 



286 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

A farmer called at his house one day to sell some cider. Mr. 
Sherman, making some inquiry about the quality of the cider, 
the farmer stormed and swore at a furious rate. Finding Mr. 
Sherman perfectly unmoved at his tirade, he looked up at him 
in astonishment, exclaiming, ''The devil himself couldn't 
provoke you." 

His domestic life was especially happy, and his virtues of 
head and heart have descended to his posterity. 

The quickness and gracefulness of the ready wit of one of 
his daughters, Mehetabel, is shown in the following anecdote. 
On a visit of General "Washington to her father she opened 
the door for the President. Upon leaving, Washington, putting 
his hand on her head, as she opened the door for his exit, 
remarked, "You deserve a better office my little lady." "Yes, 
Sir," she replied with a courtesy, "To let you in." 

This young lady afterwards became Mrs. Evarts, and 
William M. Evarts, the eminent lawyer and statesman, was her 
son. The late Senator George F. Hoar was another of his many 
distinguished descendants. 

Mr. Sherman was accustomed to say that he never liked to 
decide a doubtful or perplexing question without submitting 
it for the opinion of some intelligent woman — a high tribute 
to the women who were his wives. 

While not given to humor some incidents in his life show 
that he was not destitute of it. A young man, just entering 
upon a legislative career, called upon him for advice. Mr. 
Sherman said, "When you are in a minority, talk; when you 
are in a majority, vote." 

In his last sickness, his friends having decided to have a 
consultation of physicians, asked him if he would object. He 
replied with a smile, "No, I don't object; only I have noticed 
that in such eases the patient generally dies." 

In 1750 he published an almanac, making many astronom- 
ical calculations therefor. One of his weather predictions was 
that a certain day would be rainy. He came to court with his 
cloak, and was joked about the prediction, as the morning 



THE FBAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 287 

was exceedingly clear. A heavy rain fell in the afternoon, and 
his jokers were drenched. 

He was always an outspoken opponent of the liquor traffic, 
and every measure in his state, and in national legislation 
that favored public morality, or public culture had in him an 
enthusiastic supporter. 

In the Federal Congress he was one of the foremost advo- 
cates for measures to sustain the public credit, and favored a 
tariff to protect and upbuild American manufactures. 

Professor Denison Olmsted, of Yale College, gives the 
following account of his death. 

* ' On the 23rd of July, 1793, he finished his eventful career, 
at his own quiet residence in New Haven, where, most of all, 
he was beloved and honored. He was cheered and sustained 
in the last conflict by the power of that religion which he had 
early embraced, and whose precepts and duties he had uni- 
formly illustrated by a long life of virtue and usefulness. He 
had enjoyed almost uninterrupted health through life, and at 
the age of seventy was able to mount his horse with the agility 
of youth and to ride thirty or forty miles without fatigue. But, 
as a mound which has long withstood the pressure of the floods 
unmoved and seemingly immovable, yields at last to the silent 
influences that have been unsuccessfully infusing into its struc- 
ture the elements of decay and weakness, and is all at once 
borne away; so his constitution that seemed equal to the 
severest labors, suddenly failed, and he sunk into the arms of 
death. His last effort was in attempting to lead the family 
devotions ; but the accents of prayer died away on his lips 
before the service was completed. Still his mind was serene, 
and when asked by his daughter if he were ready to die, he 
looked with that sweet expression which many have seen and 
felt in the dying smile and replied, "Father, not my will, but 
thine be done." 

He was tall and slender, had brown hair and blue eyes, 
and somewhat of the austere manner of the Puritan, in dress 
plain, but scrupulously neat. 



288 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Byron wrote, 

"When some proud Son of man returns to earth, 
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth, 
The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe, 
And storied urns recall who rests below. 
When all is done, upon the tomb is seen. 
Not what he was, but what he should have been." 

Of all heroic characters in American History, this would 
least apply to Roger Sherman. The following inscription, 
recorded upon the tablet which covers his ashes, summarizes 
with simple truth the life, the services and the character of 
this man, one of the strongest founders of our country's 
Independence, one of the ablest framers of our country's Con- 
stitution, one of the characters as nearly approaching a perfect 
manhood as its history holds, and a model of mental and moral 
virtues whose life should be an everlasting ideal, to the 
generations that come after him: 

In Memory of, 

The Hon. Eoger Sherman, Esq., 
* * * 

Mayor of the city of New Haven, 

and Senator of the United States. 

He was born in Newtown, in Massachusetts, 

April 19th, 1721. 

And died in New Haven, July 23rd, A. D. 1793. 

Aged LXXII. 

Possessed of a strong, clear, penetrating mind, 

and singular perseverance, 

He became the self-taught scholar, 

eminent for Jurisprudence and policy. 

He was nineteen years an assistant, 

and twenty-three years a Judge of the Superior Court, 

in high reputation. 

He was a delegate in the first Congress, 

signed the glorious Act of Independence, 

^ and many years displayed superior talents and ability 

' in the national legislature. 

He was a member of the General Convention, 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 289 

approved the Federal Constitution, 

and served his country, with fidelity and honor, 

in the House of Representatives, 

and in the Senate of the United States. 

He was a man of approved integrity; 

a cool, discerning Judge; 

a prudent, sagacious politician; 

a true, faithful, and firm patriot. 

He ever adorned 

the profession of Christianity 

which he made in youth; 

and, distinguished through life 

for public usefulness, 

died in the prospect 

of a blessed immortality. 

No more useful and illustrious triumvirate than the fore- 
going from Connecticut was ever sent by any state to the 
various councils of this nation. 

From New YorJc 
Alexander Hamilton 

Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in 
the West Indies, January 11, 1757, and died July 12, 1804. 

His father, James Hamilton, descended from the clan 
Hamilton of Scotland, emigrated to the "West Indies, where 
he met and married the woman who became his mother, a 
woman of extraordinary intelligence and remarkable beauty. 
Of an old and honorable Huguenot family, she inherited a firm- 
ness in Christian faith that with her strength and brilliancy 
of intellectual endowment descended to her gifted son. This 
noble mother he lost in childhood, business reverses impover- 
ished his father, and he was taken to the home of his relatives. 
At the age of fifteen an account written by him of a hurricane 
that swept over St. Christopher was published that brought him 
into prominent notice. This and the ability he displayed in 
composition and business aptitude in the commercial house 
where he worked won the admiration of wealthy friends, and 



290 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

he Vi^as sent to New York, where he graduated from King's 
(now Columbia) College. As a student he was noted for his 
intense application, his unusual talent, and his fervent piety. 
It was his intention then to study medicine. But his born 
ability as a writer turned his career into another channel. At 
the age of seventeen, with a group of patriotic associates from 
the college, he attended a meeting where were being discussed 
the issues aflame between the colonies and Great Britain, and 
was called upon for a speech. His logic and eloquence so 
astonished the audience as to at once give him high rank as an 
advocate of colonial rights. During the same year a number of 
his published articles were so distinguished for dignity of 
manner, pith of matter and elegance of style that they were 
attributed to either Governor Livingston or John Jay. "When 
their authorship was discovered he was universally recognized 
as an intellectual prodigy, and called, "Vindicator of the 
Congress." 

Nor was he a mere man of words, but as valiant actor as 
he was an able and eloquent advocate. In March, 1776, he 
entered the Continental Army as captain of artillery, and 
displayed heroic gallantry in the battles of Trenton, Brandy- 
wine and Princeton. At Monmouth his conduct was so dis- 
tinguished for courage and sagacity that Washington gave him 
the highest praise in a special message to congress. 

In March, 1777, he became aide-de-camp, secretary and 
trusted confidant of Washington. Then began that intimate, 
life-long friendship between these great men. 

This position he held until 1781, when he was appointed 
to the command of a corps of New York troops with the rank 
of colonel. With this command he closed his active military 
career by leading a daring assault upon and capturing a 
redoubt at Yorktown. 

At the close of the war he entered upon the study of law at 
Albany, and made such rapid progress that he was admitted to 
the bar in four months. Soon after he wrote a manual on the 



THE FRAHERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 39I 

practice of law that was used as a text book for students. He 
soon became a leader at the New York bar. 

He was,4he most precocious, and one of the ablest, most 
versatile statesmen in all our history. The problems of gov- 
ernment were with him a passion — a life-long study. In its 
every department, especially finance, he was one of the most 
profound, clear-headed, and able thinkers of his own, or any 
time. 

From his tent in the midst of a suffering army, where every 
energy was taxed to the utmost in his arduous duties as aide 
to Washington, and when but little over twenty-three years 
of age, early in 1780, he wrote to Congressman Duane of New 
York a criticism of the existing system of attempted National 
Government with suggestions for remedial action that subse- 
quent history stamps as axiomatic truths of constructive states- 
manship. In this letter he urged the calling of a convention of 
delegates from the several states to organize such efficient 
national government instead of the weak and headless plan 
proposed in the Articles of Confederation, saying : 

"Undefined powers are discretionary powers, limited only 
by the object for which they were given. 

"Some of the lines of the army, but for the influence of 
Washington, would obey their states in opposition to Congress. 
Congress should have complete sovereignty in all that relates 
to war, peace, trade, finance, foreign affairs, armies, fleets, 
fortifications, coining money, establishing banks, imposing a 
land tax, poll tax, duties on trade, and the unoccupied lands. 
That the general government should have power to provide 
certain perpetual revenues, productive and easy of collection. 
That the Articles of Confederation proposed a government 
neither fit for war or for peace and would make our Union 
feeble and precarious. And that the committees and boards 
should be superseded by the appointment of officers of state, 
for foreign affairs, for war, for the navy and for the treasury." 

In 1782-3 he Avas a member of Congress, and vainly labored 
for reformation of the national system along the same lines. 



392 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMESS 

Upon his entering Congress Washington wrote General 
Sullivan : 

"I can venture to advance from a thorough Knowieage of 
him that there are few men to be found at his age who have 
more general knowledge than he possesses, and none whose soul 
is more firmly engaged in the cause, or who excels him in 
probity or in sterling virtues." 

In addition to his labors in Congress he contributed a series 
of masterly essays in favor of a stronger government. 

His efforts in that direction were such a distinct disappoint- 
ment in failure to accomplish results that he left Congress dis- 
gusted, and wrote "Washington : 

''I have an indifferent opinion of the honesty of this coun- 
try, and ill-forebodings of its future system. I have written 
with sensations of chagrin, and will make allowance for color- 
ing, but the general picture is true. God send us all more 
wisdom. ' ' 

He was the central figure in the Annapolis Convention, and 
wrote the address of that body calling for the Constitutional 
Convention. 

He submitted no written plan to that convention, as did 
Randolph, Pinckney and Paterson, but in an able and eloquent 
speech outlined a plan that he said he knew would not be 
adopted. 

This was an assembly to be elected by the people for three 
years ; a senate to be chosen by electors elected for such choice 
by the people, the senators to hold office during good behavior, 
or for life. A governor of similar selection to hold office in 
the same way, to have a veto upon all laws and to appoint all 
officers, subject to the Senate's approval. The general gov- 
ernment to appoint the governors of the states and have the 
power of vetoing any state laws. 

It was probably owing to his experience as a soldier in an 
ill-supplied and neglected army whose failure of proper support 
was due to the shortcomings of the states, jealous of and 
insistent upon their sovereignty, and to an inefficient central 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 293 

government, supplemented by his fruitless efforts in Congress 
and in the press to remedy the ills so glaringly apparent, that 
he took the gloomy view he did of democracy, and favored the 
practical annihilation of state independence in anything. 

He feared democracy, and made no disguise of his doubts as 
to the success of republican government, his admiration of the 
English constitution and personal preference for a limited 
monarchy as the best security for property and personal rights. 
He was a tirm believer in a strong government, and doubted 
the capacity of the masses to govern correctly. With the usual 
and general commercial and business view, he deprecated brief 
tenures of office and frequent elections as hostile to steady, 
settled prosperity, and fomentors of business disturbance. 

He was the only member of the convention who signed 
the constitution as an individual. He did this because his 
colleagues had left, and, in consequence, he did not feel 
authorized to sign alone for New York. 

In the battle for the adoption of the constitution by New 
York, of all men he did the most to convince the people of the 
wisdom of such a course. Nor was his titanic influence con- i 

fined to that state alone. ''The Federalist," explaining the con- 1' ■^ ^ 
stitution and chiefly his product, then written, has been and 
always will be the political classic of American literature, cited 
by courts, quoted by statesmen, studied by the cultured and 
admired by all. 

When the city of New York celebrated the victory of the 
constitution's ratification a ship on wheels representing the 
"Ship of State" was drawn through the streets by ten milk- 
white horses. On each of the four sides upholding it appeared 
one name— HAMILTON. 

Ever the trusted confidant of Washington, he was called 
to his cabinet as our first secretary of the treasury. Never 
was that office more difficult to fill or more grandly filled. The 
country's financial condition, with the burden of foreign, 
national and state debts, seemed hopelessly involved. Never 
was that country's credit at a lower ebb. Indeed, it had 



394 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

neither cash nor credit. No definite system of currency existed, 
nor plan was settled upon to extricate the new-born nation 
from its overwhelming perplexities. Splendidly did he solve 
the problems and start the nation on a sound financial basis. 

Said Daniel Webster, ''He touched the dead corpse of the 
public credit, and it sprang upon its feet." 

How paltry now appear the burdens under which our infant 
republic staggered. 

The foreign debt was .$12,000.00 

The National debt was 42,000.00 

The State debts 21,000.00 

Total $75,000.00 

He believed in commercial honesty, and through the course 
of years secured their payment in full — dollar for dollar. 

The result of his wise and honest course resulted in placing 
the credit of the United States on a solid foundation. And 
from that day the bonds of our government have been consid- 
ered the safest investment to be found. Well might he be 
called the Father of American credit. 

Radically differing in their theories of government, there 
soon occurred a breach in the cabinet between him and Jefferr.. 
son that widened and deepened, until their personal relation? 
became as embittered as their political views pronounced and 
variant. 

This was the sorest personal trial of AVashington 's whole 
Presidential career,- His unselfish, impersonal devotion to his 
country — his whole country — made him incapable of compre- 
hending such antagonisms. He knew no party alignment, no 
partisan partiality, no sectional prejudice. He rose to the 
supreme height of that patriotic purpose befitting the ''Father 
of his Country," and composed his cabinet of men of divergent 
views and variant policies that he might reach the golden 
mean that is always best. He respected the right of freedom 
of opinion and courted the counsel of independent thought. 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 395 

He knew the danger of a dead sameness, that supreme wisdom 
belonged to none. He heard with patience the appeal of senti- 
ment, attended with eagerness the logic of reason, and chose 
his course after well-weighing all before him. Self-contained, 
and self-reliant, to the utmost, yet he was no vain egotist, and 
sought support from the strong arms about him. Hamilton and 
Jefferson, he knew were both patriots to the core. They were 
as his own sons. With a father's fond solicitude he sought 
their reconciliation in his country's and his own family cabinet. 

To each he wrote in the same tenor : 

"How unfortunate and how much to be regretted it is that, 
while we are encompassed on all sides with avowed enemies 
and insidious friends, internal dissensions should be harrowing 
and tearing out our vitals." 

He set forth the public injury their quarrel would occasion, 
and appealed to their lofty love of country and sense of public 
duty to subdue their personal pride or pique. His paternal 
efforts were all in vain, 

After six years' incessant, arduous and brilliant service as 
secretary of the treasury, Hamilton, scarce past his thirty- 
eighth year, in 1795 resigned the great office so greatly filled, 
closed his official political career, and resumed the practice of 
law in New York, but as a private citizen continued his political 
activity, and remained the most able, alert and enthusiastic 
contributor to the press in support of the administration of 
his old commander. 

At the instance of Washington, President Adams made him 
inspector general of the army. There he displayed a talent in 
organizing amounting to military genius. 

In 1798, when a provincial army was provided for prepara- 
tory to France declaring her threatened war upon us, President 
Adams appointed Washington commander-in-chief of the army. 
He accepted only on condition that Hamilton was made second 
in command, and Hamilton was so appointed with the rank of 
a major general. Upon Washington's death he became com- 
mander-in-chief, but the need for the army was happily averted 



296 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

by the diplomacy of President Adams, and its organization 
disbanded. 

He and Aaron Burr had been rivals at the New York bar, 
in politics, and in fact from early manhood. Each were aides 
on "Washington's staff, froin which Burr was soon dismissed. 
Burr and the traitor, Charles Lee, were the only men whom 
history tells of who knew Washington intimately and hated 
him, and Burr was one man whom Washington thoroughly 
despised. 

Hamilton knew Burr's despicable nature, and correctly 
comprehended his unscrupulous character. And Hamilton 
could and did rise above personal feeling when his country 
confronted a crisis. 

When Jefferson proposed the "Louisiana Purchase," Ham- 
ilton dropped partisanship and supported the measure, not as 
Jefferson did, as a politic, but unconstitutional stretch of 
authority, but as both politic and constitutional. 

In the great battle between Jefferson and Burr for the 
Presidency in 1801, it was Hamilton's fierce Phillipic to Oliver 
Wolcott that turned the scale and seated Jefferson. This 
letter was, in part as follows : 

"There is no doubt that, upon every prudent and virtuous 
calculation Jefferson is to be preferred. He is by far not so 
dangerous a man, and he has pretensions to character. As to 
Burr, there is nothing in his favor. His private character is 
not defended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt 
beyond redemption, except by the plunder of his country. His 
public principles have no other spring or aim than his own 
aggrandizement. If he can he will certainly disturb our insti- 
tutions to secure himself permanent power, and with it wealth. 

"Every step in his career proves that he has formed him- 
self on the model of Cataline, and he is too cold-blooded and 
determined a conspirator to change his plan." 

In 1804, while yet Vice-President, Burr made his last effort 
to regain public place by running for governor of New York. 
While Hamilton was attending court in Albany a conference of 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 297 

Federalists was held to discuss resisting the efforts of Burr 
to effect a coalition between his party and the disaffected 
Federalists. Hamilton attended and denounced the movement 
and Burr's political character. This was reported by an eaves- 
dropper to Burr. Dr. Samuel Cooper, of Albany, had dined 
with Hamilton at the home of Judge Taylor, and in published 
letters scattered broadcast over the state told of Hamilton's 
strictures upon Burr as politically unfit for the high office and 
a dangerous man to place in it, adding he could detail a more 
despicable opinion Hamilton had expressed of Burr. Burr's 
defeat told him his public career was closed forever. He attrib- 
uted his second and final overthrow to Hamilton, though Ham- 
ilton had taken no part in the campaign, and in his vindictive 
fury determined to have the life of his over-powerful enemy. 
Burr seized upon the word, despicable, as applied to his per- 
sonal character — an apt case of conscience making self-appli- 
cation — and demanded retraction or a duel. Hamilton did all 
in his power to avert accepting the challenge. His letters, 
found after his death, showed his premonition of the fatal 
result. In them he showed his deep sense of obligation to his 
dependent family, his creditors and his clients, his anxious 
desire to avoid the duel. But the sentiment of the day was 
too strong. It forced Hamilton to accept the challenge. They 
met at Weehawken, New Jersey, on the morning of July 11, 
1804. Hamilton shot in the air, in disdain of the practice in 
which pride made him take such a fatal part, Burr's murderous 
bullet found its assassin's aim too true, and Hamilton fell, 
exclaiming to his physician, "this wound is mortal." A day's lA. 

intense agony closed his life. ^ '>^- l^*^ 

His untimely death did more to evoke public sentiment and <^ ^ 
legislation against dueling than any event in American history. 

But a short time before this Hamilton's oldest son, a boy of 
twenty, on the very same spot, had fallen in a duel. A storm 
of public indignation swept over the country. Burr was 
indicted, but never tried for the murder. He fled the state, 
and from that day for thirty years, with Cain's accursed mark. 



398 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

he was a despised vagabond wherever he wandered. In Ham- 
ilton's grave his political fortunes and personal reputation 
were forever buried. 

An immense concourse attended the funeral oration of 
Gouverneur Morris in Trinity church. Four of Hamilton's 
sons^ the oldest sixteen, the youngest six, sat on the platform. 
Morris rose to the supreme height of his life in his great ora- 
tion, portraying how Hamilton had saved the peoples' interests 
against the efforts of the people themselves, that, though he 
had abandoned public life, he never for one moment had aban- 
doned the public service. Too late an arouse^^ nation laid the 
wreath of its grateful homage on the bier of its great statesman. 

If ever this country knew a born genius, Hamilton was 
that genius. Yet he left the lesson to American youth that 
should and will live in glorious immortality, — -"Genius is 
nothing but hard work." 

He was a ceaseless, constant worker. A student every hour. 
He was not one who "thought he was thinking." He thought 
— thought profoundly. He studied. He never trusted to 
sudden inspiration, or impromptu effort. He staked all upon 
thorough, exhaustive preparation. 

Jefferson said of him as a writer, — ' ' He is really a Colossus, 
a host within himself, one whose reasoning he had found from 
experience the ablest were unable to parry." 

In Trinity church yard, New York, near the great financial 
center of the country rest the ashes, and stands the tomb of 
the first financier of American history. That tombstone bears 
this inscription, broader written on the enduring page of his 
country's history: 

The Patriot of Ineorrnptible Integrity, 

The Soldier of Approved Valor, 

The Statesman of Consummate Wisdom, 

Whose Talents and Virtues, 

Will be remembered by 

A grateful posterity 

Long after this marble shall have mouldered 

into dust. 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 299 

He was one of the first trustees and founders of Hamilton 
College at Oneida, New York, named in his honor. 

His marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of General Philip 
Schuyler, was especially fortunate. She was a woman of great 
hereditary and acquired intellectual accomplishments, a 
devoted Christian wife and mother, to whom is due the first 
orphan asylum in New York, and a fit companion for her 
illustrious husband. Their descendants have been an honor to 
their country. 

Of General Schuyler Chancellor Kent said : 

*'In acuteness of intellect, profound thought, indefatigable 
activity, exhaustless energy, pure patriotism and persevering 
intrepid public efforts he had no superior." 

Daniel Webster, — 

"He was second only to Washington in the service rendered 
to the country." 

He was one of the four major generals appointed when 
Washington was chosen commander-in-chief, and one of New 
York's first United States senators. 

Between this soldier-statesman and his gifted son-in-law 
existed the strongest sympathy in patriotic sentiment and pur- 
pose, the most cordial congeniality and devoted friendship. 
No father and son could have been more tenderly or devotedly 
attached to each other. 

It is a somewhat curious coincidence that Burr should have 
been the antagonist of both these remarkable men. In 1791, 
in the election for United States senator from New York, Burr 
defeated Gen. Schuyler. In 1797 Gen. Schuyler defeated Burr 
for the same position. 

Hamilton was small and lithe of figure, and very erect ; his 
address graceful and nervous; complexion ruddy; hair light; 
eyes of remarkable lustre. His wit, humor, and vast fund of 
information made him as great socially as he was politically. 

No man took a more prominent part in the Constitutional 
Convention than did Hamilton, either in its debates or the 
work of its committees. His great abilities were recognized 



300 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

and honored by its every member. He will always stand forth 
as one of the three first figures in that august body; as one 
of the men who did most in the framing of our constitution, in 
matter, in manner, in form and in substance. 

His unquestioned genius, his great ability, his masterly 
intellectual eminence, his fervent patriotism, whatever differ- 
ences of opinion may exist as to the policies he espoused, will 
enshrine his memory in the honor and pride of America for 
all time. 

Alexander Hamilton's Plan, or Suggestions 

I. The supreme Legislative power of the United States of America to 
be vested in two different bodies of men; the one to be called the Assem- 
bly, the other the Senate; who together shall form the Legislature of the 
United States, with power to pass all laws whatsoever, subject to the 
negative hereafter mentioned. 

II. The Assembly to consist of persons elected by the people to serve 
for three years. 

III. The Senate to consist of persons elected to serve during good 
behaviour; their election to be made by electors chosen for that purpose 
by the people. In order to this, the States shall be divided into election 
districts. On the death, removal or resignation of any Senator, his place 
to be filled out of the district from which he came. 

IV. The supreme Executive authority of the United States to be 
vested in a Governor, to be elected to serve during good behaviour; the 
election to be made by Electors chosen by the people in the Election Dis- 
tricts aforesaid. The authorities and functions of the Executive to be 
as follows: to have a negative on all laws about to be passed, and the 
execution of all laws passed; to have the direction of war when authorized 
or begun; to have with the advice and approbation of the Senate the power 
of making all treaties; to have the sole appointment of the heads or 
chief officers of the Departments of Finance, War and Foreign Affairs; to 
have the nomination of all other officers (ambassadors to foreign nations 
included) subject to the approbation or rejection of the Senate; to have 
the power of pardoning all offences except treason, which he shall not 
pardon without the approbation of the Senate. 

V. On the death, resignation or removal of the Governor, his authori- 
ties to be exercised by the President of the Senate till a successor be 
appointed. 

VI. The Senate to have the sole power of declaring war; the power 
of advising and approving all treaties; the power of approving or rejecting 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 30I 

all appointments of officers, except the heads or chiefs of the Departments 
of Finance, War, and Foreign Affairs. 

VII. The supreme Judicial authority to be vested in Judges, to hold 
their offices during good behayiour, with adequate and permanent salaries. 
This court to have original jurisdiction in all cases of capture, and an 
appellative jurisdiction in all causes in which the revenues of the General 
Government, or the citizens of foreign nations, are concerned. 

VIII. The Legislature of the United States to have power to institute 
courts in each State for the determination of all matters of general concern. 

IX. The Governor, Senators, and all officers of the United States, to 
be liable to impeachment for mal- and corrupt conduct; and upon convic- 
tion to be removed from office and disqualified from holding any place of 
trust or profit; all impeachments to be tried by a Court to consist of the 

Chief , or Judge of the Superior Court of Law of each State, 

provided such Judge shall hold his place during good behaviour and have 
a permanent salary. 

X. All laws of the particular States contrary to the Constitution or 
laws of the United States to be utterly void; and the better to prevent 
such laws being passed, the Governor or President of each State shall be 
appointed by the General Government, and shall have a negative upon the 
laws about to be passed in the State of which he is the Governor or 
President. 

XI. No State to have any forces, land or naval; and the militia of 
all the States to be under the sole and exclusive direction of the United 
States, the officers of which to be appointed and commissioned by them. 

John Lansing 

John Lansing was born in Albany, New York, January 30, 
1754. After a liberal education he studied law with his distin- 
guished associate, Robert Yates. During the revolution he 
served as military secretary for General Schuyler. He entered 
political life in 1778 as a member of the New York assembly, 
and was again and again reelected, serving seven sessions in all 
and becoming speaker in 1786. During this time he was for 
four years mayor of Albany. From February, 1784, until 1788, 
he was a member of the Continental Congress. In 1786 he was 
a member of the Convention that sat at Hartford, Connecticut, 
and made a final settlement of the territorial claims of New 
York and Massachusetts. 

He and Yates, both holding that the Constitutional Conven- 



302 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

tion had no power to form a new government, as was proposed 
by the Constitution, but only to amend the Articles of Confed- 
eration, withdrew from the Convention, and earnestly opposed 
the ratification of the constitution by the state of New York. 

He was thereafter again a member and speaker of the 
New York Assembly, declined a nomination for governor, 
and was one of the commissioners to settle the matters in con- 
troversy between New York and Vermont. 

From 1790 to 1798 he was a justice of the Supreme Court of 
New York, in the latter year succeeding Robert Yates as chief 
justice. In 1807 he succeeded Robert R. Livingston as chan- 
cellor of New York, holding that exalted station until in 1814 
his age made him ineligible, when he was succeeded by the 
great American Blackstone, James Kent, having worthily worn 
the robe of the chancellorship made so distinguished by these 
celebrated jurists. 

His long judicial career proves his eminence as a lawyer, 
his ability and integrity as a judge. His extensive experience 
as a legislator, his splendid legal training well fitted him for 
membership in that great Convention of the country's gifted. 

In New York city, December 12, 1829, he left his hotel to 
mail a letter, and was never heard of thereafter. Thus closed 
in mystery the life of one of the most noted jurists of the 
period, whatever may be thought of his conduct in the Con- 
vention and concerning the Constitution. 

Robert Yates 

The ancestors of Robert Yates came to New York from 
Leed^, England, during the reign of Charles I. The family 
was one of the most distinguished in the state. 

He was born at Schenectady, January 27, 1738; was clas- 
sically educated in New York city; and studied law with 
"William Livingston. 

Locating at Albany in 1760, he soon became one of the 
leaders of its famous bar. 

He was one of the most influential writers in support of 



THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 303 

the Colonial claims prior to the revolution. From 1775 to 1778 
he was a member of the provincial congress of New York, in 
1776 a leading member of the Council of Safety, and the same 
year one of the committee that drafted the first constitution 
of New York. 

In 1777 he became one of the judges, and in 1790 chief 
justice of the Supreme Court of New York, holding for eight 
years this highest place in the judiciary of his state. 

He took a very active part in the early debates of the 
Convention and left valuable historic notes of its proceedings 
that were published after his death. 

Believing that the Convention was transcending its author- 
ity in preparing a new constitution for the country, instead of 
amending the Articles of Confederation, he and his colleague, 
John Lansing, withdrew and did all in their power to prevent 
the ratification of the Constitution by the state of New York. 
But once ratified no one was a more loyal supporter of it. 

He was a member of the commission to adjust the dispute 
between Massachusetts and Connecticut over territory claimed 
by each, and also the claims of New York against Vermont. 

He stood in the first rank as a lawyer and jurist. He and 
Lansing have been visited with severest criticism for the view 
they took of the Convention's power and authority and sum- 
marily leaving it as they did. Yet his long and eminent public 
career evidences that he was a man of great learning and 
ability. 

He died at Albany, New York, September 9, 1801. 

Yates and Lansing enjoyed a life-long intimacy, and their 
careers were peculiarly blended. Lansing was the law-pupil 
of Yates. They stood together in their views that the Conven- 
tion was transcending its authority in attempting the formation 
of a new constitution, and for the same reasons together left 
the Convention. For many years they sat together on the 
supreme bench of New York, Lansing succeeding Yates as 
chief justice. Yates was twice an unsuccessful candidate for 
governor of New York, and Lansing declined the nomination 



304 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

for that high office in 1804. Seldom, if ever, has such harmony 
of sentiment, union and uniformity of careers been known in 
our country. It seems most unfortunate that their united 
efforts could not have been joined with Hamilton's in favor 
of the great instrument of which they became loyal supporters 
and able interpreters. Had this been so, their imperial state 
would have given in them an invincible triumvirate that would 
have saved our patriot fathers many an anxious hour, and 
hastened the ratification of the Constitution. 

From New Jersey 
David Brearley 

David Brearley was born at Spring Grove Farm, near 
Lawrenceville, New Jersey, June 11, 1741, and died at Trenton, 
August 16, 1790. 

Just prior to the revolution he took such an active part in 
opposition to the British encroachments upon colonial rights 
that he was arrested for treason, but was released by a mob 
of his countrymen. As soon as the war broke out he entered 
the army as a lieutenant, and established the reputation of 
being a cool, intrepid and sagacious officer. 

In 1799 he left military service upon his appointment as 
chief justice of New Jersey. 

In the Constitutional Convention he was one of the firm 
supporters of the equality of the states in representation in 
Congress. He was president of the New Jersey Convention that 
ratified the Constitution ; presidential elector in 1788 ; and in 
1789 resigned as chief justice to become judge of the United 
States District Court. 

He was a man of high repute as a lawyer and jurist, and of 
profoundly pious life, always taking an active part in church 
work. In 1785 he compiled the Protestant Episcopal prayer 
book. Of ripe learning, extensive judicial and legislative expe- 
rience, and flawless moral character, he fitly filled the high 
place of a Framer of our Country's Constitution. 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 305 

Jonathan Dayton 

Jonathan Dayton was born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 
October 16, 1760, and there died on October 9, 1824. 

His father, Gen. Elias Dayton, served throughout the entire 
revolutionary war, rising to the rank of brigadier general. 
He entered his father's regiment as paymaster upon his gradua- 
tion from Princeton in 1776, and closed his military career as 
> soldier under La Fayette at Yorktown. 

He was a member of the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives from 1791 to 1799 ; was one of its ablest members, 
and twice elected its speaker, serving in that high office during 
the fourth and fifth Congresses, resigning his position in the 
House when elected to the United States Senate in 1799. 

In 1807 he was accused of and arrested for joining in the 
treasonable conspiracy with Aaron Burr, but was never tried. 
This charge, that would appear to be groundless from the fail- 
ure to prosecute him, closed his political career, hitherto one 
of exceptional brilliancy. 

He enjoyed the distinction of being the youngest member 
of the Constitutional Convention, in which, despite his youth, 
and with becoming modesty, he took a prominent part. 

William Steele, of New York, several years ago contributed 
to Littell's "Living Age," the following conversation, of his- 
toric interest, with Senator Dayton: 

Said General Dayton, "I was a delegate from New Jersey, 
in the General Convention, which assembled in Philadelphia 
for the purpose of digesting a constitution for the United 
States, and I believe I was the youngest member of that body. 

' ' The great and good Washington was chosen our president, 
and Dr. Franklin, among other great men, was a delegate from 
Pennsylvania. A disposition was soon discovered in some 
members to display themselves in oratorical flourishes; but 
the good sense and discretion of the majority put down all such 
attempts. We had convened to deliberate upon, and if possible 
effect a great national object — to search for political wisdom 
and truth; these we meant to pursue with simplicity, and to 



306 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

avoid everything which would have a tendency to divert our 
attention, or perplex our scheme. A great variety of projects 
were proposed, all republican in their general outlines, but 
differing in their details. It was, therefore, determined that 
certain elementary principles should at first be established in 
each branch of the intended Constitution, and afterwards the 
details should be debated and filled up. There was little or 
no difficulty in determining upon the elementary principles — 
such as for instance that the government should be a repub- 
lican, representative government, that it should be divided 
into three branches, that is, legislative, executive and judicial. 
But when the organization of the respective branches of the 
legislature came under consideration, it was easy to be per- 
ceived that the eastern and southern states had distinct inter- 
ests, which it was difficult to reconcile; that the larger states 
were disposed to form a constitution in which the smaller 
states would be mere appendages and satellites to the larger 
ones. On the first of these subjects, much animated and some- 
what angry debate had taken place, when the ratio of repre- 
sentation in the lower house of Congress was before us — ^the 
southern states claiming for themselves the whole number of 
their black population, while the eastern states were for confin- 
ing the elective franchise to free men only, without respect to 
color. As the different parties adhered pertinaciously to their 
different positions, it was feared that this would prove an 
insurmountable obstacle; but as the members were already 
generally satisfied that no constitution could be formed, which 
would meet the views and subserve the interests of each indi- 
vidual state, it was evident that it must be a matter of com- 
promise and mutual concession. Under these impressions, and 
with these views, it was agreed at length that each state should 
be entitled to one delegate in the House of Eepresentatives 
for every 30,000 of its inhabitants, in which number should be 
included three-fifths of the whole number of their slaves. 
When the details of the House of Eepresentatives were dis- 
posed of, a more knotty point presented itself in the organiza- 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 307 

tion of the Senate. The larger states contended that the same 
ratio, as to states, should be common to both branches of the 
legislature, or in other words, that each state should be entitled 
to a representation in the Senate (whatever might be the num- 
ber fixed on), in proportion to its population, as in the House 
of Representatives. The smaller states, on the other hand, 
contended that the House of Representatives might be consid- 
ered as the guardian of the liberties of the people, and there- 
fore ought to bear a just proportion to their numbers; but 
that the Senate represented the sovereignty of the states, and 
that as each state, whether great or small, was equally an 
independent and sovereign state it ought, in this branch of the 
legislature, to have equal weight and authority; without this, 
they said there would be no security for their equal rights, 
and they would, by such a distribution of power be merged and 
lost in the larger states. This reasoning, however plain and 
powerful, had but little influence on the minds of the delegates 
from the larger states, and as they formed a large majority of 
the convention, the question, after passing through the forms 
of debate, was decided that each state should be represented 
in the Senate in proportion to its population. When the con- 
vention had adjourned over to the next day, the delegates of 
the four smallest states, i. e., Rhode Island, Connecticut, New ^ ^"^^ 
Jersey and Delaware, convened to consult what tourse was to 
be pursued in the important crisis at which we had arrived. 
After serious investigation, it was solemnly determined to ask 
for a reconsideration the next morning; and if it was not 
granted, or if, when granted, that offensive feature of the Con- 
stitution could not be expunged, and the smaller states put on 
an equal footing with the largest, we would secede from the 
convention, and returning to our constituents, inform them 
that no compact could be formed with the larger states but one 
which would sacrifice our sovereignty and independence. 

"I was deputed to be the organ through which this com- 
munication should be made — I know not why, unless it be 
that young men are generally chosen to perform rash actions. 



„,>— - 



308 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Accordingly when the convention had assembled, and as soon 
as the minutes of the last sitting had been read, I arose and 
stated the view we had taken of the organization of the Senate 
— our desire to obtain a reconsideration and suitable modifica- 
tion of that article ; and in failure thereof, our determination 
to secede from the convention, and return to our constituents. 

"This disclosure, it may readily be supposed, produced an 
immediate and great excitement in every part of the house. 
Several members were immediately upon the floor to express 
their surprise or indignation. They represented that the ques- 
tion had received a full and fair investigation, and had been 
definitely settled by a large majority. That it was altogether 
unparliamentary and unreasonable for one of the minority to 
propose a reconsideration at the moment their act had become 
a matter of record, and without pretending that any new light 
could be thrown on the subject. That if such a precedent 
should be established it would in future be impossible when 
any one point would be definitely settled; as a small minority 
might at any moment, again and again, move and obtain a 
reconsideration. They therefore hoped the Convention would 
express its decided disapprobation by passing silently to the 
business before them. 

''There was much warm and some acrimonious feeling 
exhibited by a number of the speeches. A rupture appeared 
almost inevitable, and the bosom of Washington seemed to 
labor with the most anxious solicitude for its issue. Happily 
for the United States, the Convention contained some individ- 
uals possessed of talents and virtues of the highest order, 
whose hearts were deeply in the establishment of a new and 
efficient form of government ; and whose penetrating minds 
had already deplored the evils which would spring up in our 
newly established republic, should the present attempt to con- 
solidate it prove abortive. 

"Among those personages, the most prominent was Dr. 
Franklin. He was esteemed the mentor of our body. To a 
mind naturally strong and capacious, enriched by much read- 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 309 

ing, and the experience of many years, he added a manner of 
communicating his thoughts peculiarly his own, in which sim- 
plicity, beauty and strength were equally conspicuous. As 
soon as the angry orators who preceded him left an opening, 
the Doctor arose, evidently impressed with the weight of the 
subject before them, and the difficulty of managing it success- 
fully.. 'We have arrived, Mr, President,' said he, 'at a very 
momentous and interesting crisis in our deliberations. Hitherto 
our views have been as harmonious and our 'progress as great 
as could reasonably have been expected. But now an unlooked 
for and formidable obstacle is thrown in our way, which 
threatens to arrest our course, and if not skillfully removed, 
to render all of our fond hopes of a constitution abortive. The 
ground which has been taken by the delegates of the four 
smaller states was as unexpected by me, and as repugnant to 
my feelings, as it can be to any other member of this Con- 
vention. After what I thought a full and impartial investiga- 
tion of the subject, I recorded my vote in the affirmative side 
of the question, and I have not yet heard anything which 
induces me to change my opinion. But, I will not, therefore, 
conclude that it is impossible for me to be wrong; I will not 
say that those gentlemen who differ from me are under a 
delusion — much less will I charge them with an intention of 
needlessly embarrassing our deliberations. It is possible some 
change in our late proceedings ought to take place upon princi- 
ples of political justice; or that, all things considered, the 
majority may see cause to recede from some of their just pre- 
tentions, as a matter of prudence and expediency. For my 
own part, there is nothing I so much dread as a failure to 
devise and establish some efficient and equal form of govern- 
ment for our infant republic. The present effort has been 
made under the happiest auspices, and has promised the most 
favorable results, but should this effort prove vain, it will be 
long ere another can be made with any prospect of success. 
Our strength and our prosperity depend on our unity ; and the 
secession of even four of the smallest states, interspersed as 



310 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

they are, would, in my mind, paralyze and render useless any 
plan which the majority could devise. I should therefore be 
grieved, Mr. President, to see matters brought to the test, 
which perhaps has been too rashly threatened on the one hand, 
and which some of my honest colleagues have treated too 
lightly on the other. I am convinced that it is a subject which 
should be approached with caution, treated with tenderness, 
and decided on with candor and liberality. It is, however, to 
be feared that the members of this Convention are not in tem- 
per at this moment to approach the subject on which we differ 
in this spirit. I would, therefore, propose, Mr. President, that, 
without proceeding further in this business at this time, the 
convention should adjourn for three days, in order to let the 
present ferment pass off, and to afford time for a more full, 
free and dispassionate investigation of the subject; and I 
would earnestly recommend to the members of this convention, 
that they spend the time of this recess, not in associating with 
their own party, and devising new agreements to fortify them- 
selves in their old opinions, but that they mix with members 
of opposite sentiments, lend a patient ear to their reasonings, 
and candidly allow them all the weight to which they may be 
entitled, and when we assemble again, I hope it will be with a 
determination to form a constitution, if not such an one as we 
can individually, and in all respfects, approve, yet, the best, 
which under existing circumstances can be obtained." 

(Here the countenance of Washington brightened, and a 
cheering ray seemed to break in upon the gloom which had 
recently covered our political horizon) . The Doctor continued : 

"Before I sit down, Mr. President, I will suggest another 
matter ; and I am really surprised that it has not been proposed 
by some other member at an earlier period of our deliberations. 
I will suggest, Mr. President, the propriety of nominating and 
appointing, before we separate, a chaplain to this Convention, 
whose duty it shall be uniformly to assemble with us, and 
introduce the business of each day by an address to the Creator 
of the Universe, and the Governor of all Nations, beseeching 



THE FKAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 311 

Him to preside in our councils, enlighten our minds with a 
portion of heavenly wisdom, influence our hearts with a love of 
truth and justice, and crown our labors with complete and 
abundant success." 

The Doctor sat down, and never did I behold a countenance 
at once so dignified and delighted as that of Washington at 
the close of this address. Nor were the members of the Con- 
vention, generally, less affected. The words of the venerable 
Franklin fell upon our ears with a weight and authority even 
greater than we supposed an oracle to have had in a Roman 
senate. A silent admiration superseded for a moment the 
expression of that assent and approbation which was strongly 
marked on almost every countenance. I say almost, for one 

man was found in the Convention, Mr. H ., from ., who 

rose and said, with regard to the first motion of the honorable 
gentleman for an adjournment, he would yield his assent ; 
but he protested against the second motion, for the appoint- 
ment of a chaplain. He then commenced a high-strained 
eulogium on the assemblage of wisdom, talent, and experience, 
which the Convention embraced ; declared the high sense he 
entertained of the honor which his constituents had conferred 
upon him in making him a member of that respectable body; 
said he was confidently of opinion that they were competent 
to transact the business which had been entrusted to their 
care — that they were equal to every exigence which might 
occur; and concluded by saying, that therefore he did not see 
the necessity of calling in foreign aid. 

Washington fixed his eyes upon the speaker with a mixture 
of surprise and indignation, while he uttered this impertinent 
and impious speech, and then looked around to ascertain in 
what manner it affected others. They did not leave him a 
moment to doubt ; no one deigned to reply, or take the smallest 
notice of the speaker, but the motion for appointing a chaplain 
was instantly seconded and carried, whether with the silent 

disapprobation of Mr. II , or his solitary negative, I do 

not recollect. 



313 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

"The motion for an adjournment was then put and carried 
unanimously; and the Convention adjourned accordingly. 

"The three days of recess were spent in the manner advised 
by Doctor Franklin; the opposite parties mixed with each 
other, and a free and frank interchange of sentiments took 
place. On the fourth day we assembled again, and if great 
additional light had not been thrown on the subject, every 
unfriendly feeling had been expelled, and a spirit of concilia- 
tion had been cultivated, which promised, at least, a calm 
and dispassionate reconsideration of the subject. 

"As soon as the chaplain had closed his prayer, and the 
minutes of the last sitting were read, all eyes were turned to 
the Doctor. He rose, and in a few words stated, that during 
the recess he had listened attentively to all the arguments pro 
and con, which had been urged by both sides of the house; 
that he had himself said much and thought more on the sub- 
ject; he saw difficulties and objections, which might be urged 
by individual states against every scheme which had been 
proposed ; and he was now, more than ever, convinced that 
the constitution which they were about to form, in order to 
be just and equal, must be formed on the basis of compromise 
and concession. With such views and feelings he would now 
move a reconsideration of the vote last taken on the organiza- 
tion of the Senate. The motion was seconded, the vote carried, 
the former vote rescinded, and by a successive motion and 
resolution, the Senate was organized on the present plan. 

"Thus, my dear son, I have detailed, as far as my memory 
serves me, the information which I received personally from 
General Dayton. It has been done from a recollection of ten 
years, and I may have differed much from General Dayton in 
his phraseology, but I am confident I have fully stated the 
facts. I have related this anecdote at different times to gen- 
tlemen of information, to all of whom it was entirely new. 
Some of them requested me to furnish them a written copy, but 
I deemed that impossible without the permission of General 
Dayton ; and I intended the first opportunity I should have to 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 313 

make the same request of him — but the hand of death has 
removed him. 

"In committing this anecdote to paper, I have been actu- 
ated, not only by a wish to gratify you, but by a desire to per- 
petuate the facts, if, as I fear they are not elsewhere recorded, 
as they relate to a very important feature in our republican 
institutions, and to some of the most celebrated individuals 
who achieved our independence, and framed our National 
Government. They will, I am persuaded, be interesting to 
every lover of this happy country. 

"I am, very affectionately, 
"Your father, 

"Wm. Steele. 
"To Jonathan D. Steele." 

William Churchill Houston 

William Churchill Houston was born in the Sumter Dis- 
trict, South Carolina, about 1746, and died at Frankfort, Penn- 
sylvania, August 12, 1788 — the first member of that great 
Convention to pass to his final reward. 

He graduated at Princeton in 1768, having worked his way 
through college as a tutor, and serving therein in the same 
capacity until 1771, when he was made professor of mathe- 
matics and natural philosophy. At one time he and Dr. 
Witherspoon were the only members of the faculty who 
remained to instruct the little band of students, too young to 
enter the army that had drained this always patriotic institu- 
tion of professors and pupils. In 1776 he rendered efificieni 
service as a captain in that army. 

In 1776 he was a member of the New Jersey legislature; 
in 1778, of its state council of safety; from 1779 to 1782 and 
from 1784 to 1786, represented it in the Continental Congress. 

In the latter year he resigned his professorship at Prince- 
ton, and entered the practice of law at Trenton. From 1784 
until his death he was clerk of the New Jersey Supreme Court. 
He was a member of the Annapolis Convention. His failing 



314 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

health forced him to leave the Constitutional Convention before 
its adjournment and forego the honor of signing that 
instrument. 

As academician, legislator, lawyer and man he held a 
worthy place among the great men of his day. 

William Livingston 

William Livingston was born at Albany, New York, 
December 30, 1723, and died at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 
July 25, 1790. 

He was a son of the first Philip Livingston, one of the 
noted and wealthy patroons of New York, and brother of 
Philip Livingston, the signer of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. His mother, Catherine Van Brugh, was of an old Dutch 
family of Albany. 

He graduated at the head of his class at Yale at the early 
age of eighteen, and soon became one of the most famous 
lawyers of New York. His first public service was as a mem- 
ber of the provincial congress of New York, being elected 
from his brother's "Manor of Livingston." 

Exhausted by the labors of an extensive practice, and hav- 
ing married Susanna French, daughter of one of the largest 
land owners of New Jersey, and himself bought an extensive 
estate near Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in 1760 he retired 
from professional life, removed to New Jersey and erected on 
the estate he purchased ''Liberty Hall," one of the famous 
colonial mansions, where Washington and many of the noted 
men of the time consulted with and were entertained by him. 
He was an especial object of British malevolence during the 
Revolutionary war, and many efforts were made to capture 
him, and destroy his palatial home. 

He was a delegate from New Jersey to the first, second 
and third Continental Congresses; was one of the committee 
that prepared the famous address to Great Britain in 1774, 
and on the leading committees in congress thereafter, but 
leaving to become a brigadier-general of the New Jersey 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 315 

troops, missed affixing his signature to the Declaration of 
Independence. 

He was chosen one of the first trustees of King's College, 
but declined the position, because at that time the president 
of the College had to be a member of the Church of England. 
He published the first Digest of the Colonial Laws of New 
York, was one of the most prolific and influential writers of 
his day in prose and verse, and much given to theological 
discussions, especially in controversy with Episcopal theo- 
logians, he being reared in and an adherent of the Dutch 
Reformed Church. 

He liberated his own slaves, advocated the emancipation 
of all slaves in New Jersey, and secured the enactment of the 
law prohibiting the further importation of slaves into that 
state. 

He was one of the founders and original trustees of the 
New York Society Library. 

Said President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College; ''The 
talents of Governor Livingston were very various. His im- 
agination was brilliant, his wit sprightly and pungent, his 
understanding powerful, his taste refined, and his concep- 
tions bold and masterly. His views of political subjects were 
expansive, clear and just. Of freedom, both civil and religious 
he was a distinguished champion." 

His son, Brockholst Livingston, became one of New York's 
most famous lawyers, judge of the supreme court, and for 
sixteen years a justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, 

William Paterson 

William Paterson was born in 1745, according to some 
accounts at sea, to others in Ireland, and died at Albany, 
New York, September 9, 1806. 

His father was an Irishman, who located in New Jersey. 

He graduated at Princeton in 1763, and studied law under 
Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. 
His early success was marked, and he soon was called into 



316 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

public station. He was a member of the first Provincial 
congress of New Jersey, and its secretary. In 1775 he was 
elected to the Continental congress; the following year attor- 
ney-general and a member of the New Jersey legislative 
council; and in 1780 reelected to the Continental congress. 

In 1776, as a member of the New Jersey constitutional 
convention, he added preparatory experience for his great 
work in the national constitutional convention. 

In 1783 he resigned all public positions to devote his time 
to his extensive practice, his first public part thereafter being 
in the Annapolis convention. 

In 1789 he was sent to the United States senate ; was 
chairman of the committee to prepare the certificates of elec- 
tion of members of congress ; and as a member of the judiciary 
committee, next to Oliver Ellsworth, took the most active 
part in framing the judiciary act under which our federal 
courts were first organized. 

The next year he was elected governor of New Jersey, 
succeeding William Livingston, and resigned as United States 
senator. As governor he was ex-officio chancellor of the state. 
During his incumbency of these high offices, by authority and 
request of the legislature, he codified all the British statutes 
in force before the Revolution and by the state constitution 
kept in force in the state, as well as the statutes subsequently 
enacted by the legislature. This has been pronounced the 
most perfect work of its kind in the country. 

In 1793 "Washington appointed him a justice of the supreme 
court of the United States. This exalted office he held until 
his death. 

His eminent abilities as one of the leading men in the 
federal constitutional convention were recognized by his pre- 
senting, in behalf of the state's rights adherents the "New 
Jersey Plan," whereby it was proposed to preserve the state 
sovereignties, giving to the national government only power 
to provide for the common defence and general welfare. 
With those of similar faith, he strenuously contended that 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 317 

the purpose of the convention was merely to revise and 
somewhat amplify the articles of confederation. He, also, 
was one of the ablest and most insistent of the delegates who 
contended for equality of representation by the states in the 
United States Senate. This settled down to be the vital point 
with the delegates from all of the smaller states, and when 
attained made of them and their states the strongest advocates 
for and supporters of ratifying the constitution and forming 
the Union thereunder. 

With the equality of the states in the senate he became 
content, agreed to the compromise of equality of representa- 
tion in the senate, as to population in the house, and joined 
with his colleagues in securing the early unanimous ratifica- 
tion of the constitution by New Jersey. His profound and 
brilliant learning, his unquestioned patriotism, and the fact 
that he represented most prominently the shade of political 
thought that he did, commended him to "Washington in the 
latter 's selection of him as an associate justice of the supreme 
court of the United States — that august tribunal that, as 
nearly as possible, ought always to evenly reflect the domi- '^^ j , jc. 
nant political sentiments of the country. This position he 
honored from 1793 to his death in 1806. Paterson, New 
Jersey, is that state's monument to his illustrious memory. 

Paterson's — "The New Jersey Plan." 

1. Besolved, That the Articles of Confederation ought to be so revised, 
corrected and enlarged as to render the Federal Constitution adequate to 
the exigencies of government, and the preservation of the Union. 

2. Besolved, That, in addition to the powers vested in the United 
States in Congress, by the present existing Articles of Confederation, they 
be authorized to pass acts for raising a revenue, by levying a duty or 
duties on all goods or merchandises of foreign growth or manufacture 
imported into any part of the United States; by stamps on paper, vellum 
or parchment; and by a postage on all letters or packages passing through 
the general postoffice ; to be applied to such Federal purposes as they 
shall deem proper and expedient; to make rules and regulations for the 
collection thereof; and the same, from time to time, to alter and amend 
in such manner as they shall think proper; to pass acts for the regulation 



318 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMEES 

of trade and commerce as well with foreign nations as with each other; 
provided that all punishments, fines, forfeitures and penalties, to be incurred 
for contravening such acts, rules and regulations, shall be adjudged by the 
common law Judiciaries of the State in which any offence contrary to the 
true intent and meaning of such acts, rules and regulations shall have been 
committed or perpetrated, with liberty of commencing in the first instance 
all suits and prosecutions for that purpose in the Superior common law 
Judiciary in such State; subject, nevertheless, for the correction of all 
errors, both in law and fact, in rendering judgment, to an appeal to the 
Judiciary of the United States, 

3. Resolved, That whenever requisitions shall be necessary, instead 
of the rule for making requisitions mentioned in the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, the United States in Congress be authorized to make such requisitions 
in proportion to the whole number of white and other free citizens and 
inhabitants, of every age, sex and condition, including those bound to 
servitude for a term of years, and three-fifths of all other persons not 
comprehended in the foregoing description, except Indians not paying 
taxes; that, if such requisitions be not complied with, in the time specified 
therein, to direct the collection thereof in the non-complying States; and 
for that purpose to devise and pass acts directing and authorizing the 
same; provided, that none of the powers hereby vested in the United 

States in Congress shall be exercised without the consent of at least 

States; and in that proportion, if the number of confederated States 
should hereafter be increased or diminished. 

4. Resolved, That the United States in Congress be authorized to elect 

a Federal Executive to consist of persons, to continue in office for 

the term of years; to receive punctually, at stated times, a fixed com- 
pensation for their services, in which no increase or diminution shall be 
made so as to affect the persons composing the Executive at the time of 
such increase or diminution; to be paid out of the Federal treasury; to 
be incapable of holding any other office or appointment during their time 

of service, and for years thereafter; to be ineligible a second time, 

and removable by Congress on application by a majority of the Executives 
of the several States: that the Executive, besides their general authority 
to execute the Federal acts, ought to appoint all Federal officers not other- 
wise provided for, and to direct all military operations; provided, that none 
of the persons composing the Federal Executive shall, on any occasion, 
take command of any troops, so as personally to conduct any military 
enterprise, as General, or in any other capacity. 

5. Resolved, That a Federal Judiciary be established, to consist of a 
supreme tribunal, the Judges of which to be appointed by the Executive, 
and to hold their offices during good behavior; to receive punctually, at 
stated times, a fixed compensation for their services, in which no increase 
or diminution shall be made so as to affect the persons actually in office 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 319 

at the time of such increase or diminution. That the Judiciary so estab- 
lished shall have authority to hear and determine, in the first instance, on 
all impeachments of Federal officers; and by way of appeal, in the dernier 
ressort, in all eases touching the rights of ambassadors; in all cases of 
capture from an enemy; in all cases of piracies and felonies on the high 
seas ; in all cases in which foreigners may be interested ; in the construction 
of any treaty or treaties, or which may arise on any of the acts for the 
regulation of trade, or the collection of the Federal revenue; that none of 
the Judiciary shall, during the time they remain in office, be capable of 
receiving or holding any other office or appointment during their term of 
service, or for thereafter. 

6. Eesolved, That all acts of the United States in Congress, made by 
virtue and in pursuance of the powers hereby, and by the Articles of 
Confederation vested in them, and all treaties made and ratified under the 
authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the respective 
States,, so far forth as those acts or treaties shall relate to the said States 
or their citizens; and that the Judiciary of the several States shall be 
bound hereby in their decisions, anything in the respective laws of the 
individual States to the contrary notwithstanding; and that if any State, 
or any body of men in any State, shall oppose or prevent the carrying 
into execution such acts or treaties, the Federal Executive shall be author- 
ized to call forth the power of the Confederated States, or so much thereof 
as may be necessary, to enforce and compel an obedience to such acts, or 
an observance of such treaties. 

7. Eesolved, That provision be made for the admission of new States 
into the Union. 

8. Eesolved, That the rule for naturalization ought to be the same in 
every State. 

9. Eesolved, That a citizen of one State committing an offence in 
another State of the Union shall be deemed guilty of the same offence as 
if it had been committed by a citizen of the State in which the offence 
was committed. 

From Pennsylvania 

George Cljmier 

George Clymer's father emigrated from Bristol, England, 
to and married in Philadelphia, where this son was born 
January 24, 1739. 

Left an orphan at seven years of age, he was adopted by 
his uncle, William Coleman, a merchant of means and culture, 
who was noted for his scholarship, and especially his pro- 
ficiency in mathematics as well as business sagacity. This 



320 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

uncle gave him a liberal education, and left him a large 
estate in his business. Young Clymer was neither adapted, 
nor inclined to a mercantile, but, in the best sense of the term 
to a political career. A republican from principle, he was 
among the first to oppose the British pretentions, took an 
active part in the proceedings to resist them, and was chosen 
a member of the Council of Safety. "When the call to arms 
came he at once entered the service, was made a captain, but 
left the army when his countrymen demanded his service in 
another sphere. 

He was among the first to subscribe all of his specie to the 
continental fund, and was elected one of the first two conti- 
nental treasurers. He was not in congress when the vote 
for the Declaration of Independence was cast, but was one 
of the delegates elected by Pennsylvania July 20, 1776, to 
succeed the misguided members of that state's delegation 
who refused to sign it and abandon their positions. He thus 
became one of its immortal signers. He was one of the com- 
mittee of three to handle the funds and transact the business 
of the congress in Philadelphia, when on the approach of the 
British it adjourned to Baltimore; with Elbridge Gerry and 
Philip Livingston to visit the army under Washington and 
inquire into and provide for its commissary department; with 
Samuel "Washington and Gabriel Jones to treat with the 
Indians on the western frontier. While there it was planned 
to assassinate him. while en route to fill an appointment. 
Providentially he went by a different road from the one ex- 
pected to travel, and on which the assassin lay in wait, and 
thereby was saved. The luckless man who went the route he 
was expected to go was slain. 

He was one of the organizers of the bank succeeded by 
the Bank of North America, whose mission was to accumulate 
and provide funds for our armies. For this purpose he vis- 
ited Boston, and with Rutledge of South Carolina made a 
tour of the Southern States to procure their quota of men and 
supplies to carry on the war. In that congress he won the 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 321 

reputation of being one of its ablest and most useful members. 

In 1780 he was reelected to and in 1782 retired from 
congress and removed to Princeton, New Jersey, to educate 
his children, thereby abandoning hope of future honors in 
the state he had represented with such distinguished ability. 
In 1784 the people of Pennsylvania, insisted upon his return 
and the acceptance of a seat in the legislature, to which he 
had been elected. In that body he was one of the leading 
advocates for the abolition of capital punishment, except for 
murder or treason. He was a humanitarian and believed in 
reforming the criminal. 

He was one of the most active framers of the Constitution, 
and supporters of its adoption by the State of Pennsylvania. 
He was elected to the first congress of the United States in 
1789. In that congress he opposed the granting of titles to 
the President and other public officials, and believed in, as 
well as advocated the policy of the representative acting upon 
his own independent judgment, rather than the dictate of 
his constituents. He held that legislation was a matter of 
judgment, and that those who were serving in the legislature 
possessed better means of information and were more capable 
to exercise a correct judgment than those who were absent 
and distant from it. He also held that foreigners should be 
gradually admitted to the rights of citizens, that they should 
reside in the country for a certain length of time before being 
permitted to own property, vote, or hold office. He argued: 

"Aliens might, with no less advantage than native citi- 
zens, be vested with every right of property; but none of the 
political rights should be entrusted to them, until after a long 
probation; and this would not be in any way unjust; for a 
stranger comes into a new country to be relieved from the 
oppressions of the old, or to better his personal condition, and 
not to govern it. In the countries from which strangers gen- 
erally come to us, it is the part of the people to obey; — a 
simple lesson, easily learned : but in our country it is their part 
to govern, which requires a long preparation of habits and of 



322 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

knowledge; and it is a part which strangers are unfit to act. 
He conies either with a disposition already broken to some 
degree of slavery, or with a superstitious reverence for the 
despotism to which custom has reconciled him; and wishes to 
assimilate the powers of his new to his old government. Or, 
from a hatred of the old, from its oppressions which he has 
felt, he becomes, from a want of discriminating knowledge, an 
enemy to all governments whatsoever, and is, of course, the 
factious and turbulent partisan of anarchy and disorder." 

He favored the assumption of the state debts by the na- 
tional government and of reciprocity in comnjercial treaties 
with foreign nations. 

He served but one term in congress, declining a reelection. 
He was thereupon appointed by President Washington to the 
responsible and disagreeable post of collecting the internal 
revenue in the state of Pennsylvania. This was a most un- 
popular position and brought upon him the harshest criticism. 
For the severe strictures upon his conduct published by an 
editor, he visited the office of the latter and severely caned 
the offender. He also served in negotiating the treaty with the 
Indians in Georgia in 1796. 

He was elected the first president of the Philadelphia Bank 
and of the Academy of Fine Arts; and vice president of the 
Philadelphia Agricultural Society, which positions he held 
until his death. 

One of the most noted biographers of his time pays the 
following tribute to his character : 

"Firm, but not obstinate; independent, but not arrogant; 
communicative, but not obtrusive ; he was at once the amiable 
and instructive companion. Retired, studious, contemplative, 
he was ever adding something to his knowledge ; and endeavor- 
ing to make that knowledge useful. His predominant passion 
was to promote every scheme for the improvement of his coun- 
try, whether in science, agriculture, polite education, the useful 
or the fine arts. It was in the social circle of friendship that 
his acquirements were displayed and appreciated, and although 




CARPENTERS' HALL. PHILADELFHLA. 

Where the Continental Congress met, tlie Declaration of Independence was signed, 

and the Constitution framed. 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 323 

their action was communicated from this circle to a wider 
sphere, it was with an enfeebled force. Diffident and retired, 
while capable of teaching, he seemed only anxious to learn. 
He sought in vain to conceal from the world the extraordinary- 
talents which he possessed, or to shrink from the honorable 
consideration in which they were held. He never solicited 
preferment, and would have remained in the private walks of 
life, had not a sense of duty, and the voice of his country, 
called him into public usefulness. He never sought popularity, 
and the large portion of it which he enjoyed, arose solely from 
a conviction on the part of the people, that he would diligently 
and faithfully discharge his duty. 

He possessed a mind perseveringly directed towards the 
promotion of useful objects ; — an uncommon zeal in the service 
of individuals and of public institutions, — a delicacy and dis- 
interestedness of which there are few examples; a profound 
love of rational liberty and hatred of tyranny; a happy 
serenity and cheerfulness of mind; a vigor and originality of 
thought; moderation of sentiment and purity of heart. The 
kindness and urbanity of his manners endeared him to all his 
associates, while the simplicity, which was a marked feature 
of his character, did not permit him to assume an offensive 
or unreasonable control over their opinions. His conversation 
was of the most instructive kind, and manifested an extensive 
knowledge of books and men. He possessed the rare quality 
of never traducing or speaking ill of the absent, or endeavor- 
ing to debase their characters. His benevolence of disposition 
and liberality of sentiment, were always conspicuous; and 
these ennobling sentiments were evidenced in a distinguished 
manner, by his having been the principal promoter of the 
amelioration of the state penal code. 

He was scrupulous and punctual in his attention to what 
may be termed the minor or secondary duties of life, or to 
those engagements which, being merely voluntary, are so often 
considered as of no moral or binding force. In the public 
bodies over which he presided, he knew that his presence and 



324 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

services were relied on for their operations and usefulness; he 
felt the responsibility of the stations, and that it was through 
his instrumentality alone that their proceedings could be 
properly conducted; and he never permitted any idle humor, 
or party of pleasure, to allure him from the post of duty. In 
all the engagements, however trivial of private life, he observed 
the same punctilious system. 

His pretensions to eloquence were limited, and he seldom 
appeared as a public speaker ; but when his diffidence was con- 
quered by feelings of duty, and he did speak, he was listened 
to with universal attention. 

He was a vigorous opposer of monopolies and visited them 
with the following denunciation : 

"Our feelings," he says, "are more strongly excited against 
a conquering, than a monopolizing nation. Conquest has to 
plead ambition or glory, with which the world has always been 
fascinated; but monopoly has not the excuse of any human 
passion except avarice, the most ignoble of all. The effects of 
the monopolizing, is also more felt than that of the conquering 
spirit. A country conquered becomes the care of the con- 
queror ; it is seldom more than a change of one bad government 
for another, in which the people neither lose nor gain. 
Monopoly makes no conquest, but acts upon a whole people, 
in repressing all private industry and enterprise. The one 
makes war upon a nation collectively; the other makes war 
upon the people individually." 

He enjoyed a personal intimacy with "Washington accorded 
to but few. This, in^ addition to his own merits, was aided by 
his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Meredith, daughter of Reese 
Meredith, one of Philadelphia's most prominent merchants. 

One evening at a coffee house, Mr. Meredith saw and was 
much impressed with that indescribable something about an 
unnoticed and strange young man that in after years so im- 
pressed all who met him. He introduced himself to and was 
so pleased with the young stranger that he invited him to his 
house, and insisted upon his remaining there during his visit. 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 325 

That young man was George Washington. From that time, 
whenever he visited Philadelphia, he made Mr. Meredith's 
house his home, cherished for its owner the most cordial life- 
long regard, and for his family the kindliest of friendly senti- 
ment. 

No man led a more thoroughly consistent Christian life or 
one of purer morality. 

He was a man of great erudition and the author of many 
political, literary and scientific essays, which are preserved in 
the archives of the institutions he honored and helped found. 
His descendants have been prominent in the political and com- 
mercial life of Pennsylvania. 

After one of the busiest and most useful lives of his day he 
died at Morrisville, Pennsylvania, on January 23, 1813. 

Thomas Fitzsimmons 

Thomas Fitzsimmons was born in Ireland in 1741, and died 
at Philadelphia, August 26, 1811. 

The oppressions practiced upon the Irish drove him to 
America about the year 1765. He went into mercantile busi- 
ness in Philadelphia; married the daughter of Robert Meade, 
great-grandfather of Gen. George G. Meade, the commander 
at the battle of Gettysburg; formed a partnership with his 
brother-in-law, and aided in building up the firm of George 
Meade & Co., one of the wealthiest and most substantial 
houses known among Philadelphia merchants and ship-owners. 

He took an active part in the Revolution, raised and com- 
manded a company that took part in the battles of Trenton 
and Princeton, and was an honored member of the Pennsyl- 
vania state council and navy board. 

In 1780 his house subscribed $25,000.00 to supply the neces- 
sities of the army — a munificent sum for that day of stress and 
hardship and humble circumstances. 

In 1782 he entered the Continental Congress, and took a 
leading part in its discussions of financial questions. After the 



326 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

close of the war he was an influential member of the Pennsyl- 
vania legislature. 

In the convention he opposed universal suffrage, and con- 
tended that the right to" vote should be confined to free- 
holders. He also argued that the lower house of congress 
should act with the President and Senate in making treaties 
with foreign nations. 

From 1789 to 1795 he was a member of the lower house 
of the United States Congress, and was one of the early and 
strong advocates of a protective tariff. 

His practical and experienced business ability made him a 
valuable member of the convention. Giving to congress the 
power to tax imports and exports was due as much to the 
efforts of this merchant as to the orators and statesmen of that 
body. 

He was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, a 
founder and director of the Bank of North America, of Phila- 
delphia, and president of the Philadelphia Chamber of Com- 
merce. 

Benjamin Franklin 

The family of Benjamin Franklin lived in Northampton 
County, England, for more than three centuries prior to his 
father coming to Massachusetts in 1682. It was a family 
marked by industry, honesty and mechanical ingenuity. His 
father was a Puritan and in an humble way a maker of soap 
and candles. His mother, a daughter of Peter Folger, the 
Quaker poet of Nantucket, was a native of Boston and de- 
scended from one of the principal settlers of New England. 

He was born in Boston, January 17, 1706, the fifteenth in 
a family of seventeen children. His precociousness as a child 
induced his parents to start his education for the ministry, but 
their poverty compelled them to abandon that pious desire. 

By his eighth year he became noted for his advancement 
in his studies. Soon thereafter his father's necessities stopped 
him from school and put him at work making candles and 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 327 

soap. At an ear.ly age he became a constant reader. "Plu- 
tarch's Lives," "The Spectator," "Locke and Xenophon" 
were his favorite authors. The life of Socrates was to him an 
especial charm, and to his study of it is probably due his own 
philosophy in after life. 

He finally became apprenticed as a printer to his brother, 
who grew very jealous of him and treated him with unusual 
brutality. His brother's newspaper was the only one of its 
kind in New England, and the second established in America, 
Young Franklin's contributions to it attracted favorable com- 
ment in Boston, but provoked from his brother outbursts of 
rage that ended in the frequent thrashing of the younger 
brother. He left for New York, and failing to procure work 
there went on to Philadelphia. There he landed with a single 
dollar and, it is said, walked down the street with a roll of 
bread under his arm and his pockets stuffed with what little 
wearing apparel he had. His uncouth appearance excited the 
humor of those who saw him, among whom was his future 
wife, who said he made a very awkward and ridiculous figure. 
He obtained work as a printer, and soon his talents attracted 
the notice of the governor. Sir Wm. Keith, who induced him 
to go to London to arrange with booksellers for his writings 
and procure material for a printing office. On his arrival in 
London he found that the generous governor was unknown, 
and that his recommendations were more of a burden than 
benefit. The governor was somewhat of a dreamer and laid too 
much stress upon his position. 

Finding himself stranded he sought employment in a Lon- 
don printing house and soon won the favor of his employer. 
He returned to Philadelphia in 1726. 

Composition was a passion with him all his life. 

The rules of conduct which he wrote for himself at this 
early age might well be kept by any young man of today. 

**I resolve to be extremely frugal. 

**To speak the truth in every instance, and give no one 



328 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

expectations which are not likely to be answered, but aim at 
sincerity in every word and action. 

' ' To apply myself industriously in whatever business I take 
in hand, and not divert my mind by any foolish project of 
growing suddenly rich; for industry and patience are the 
surest means of plenty. 

"I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a 
matter of truth ; but rather by some means excuse the faults 
I would charge upon others, and upon proper occasions speak 
all the good I know of everybody." 

By industry and frugality, after many vicissitudes, he at 

-last secured an office of his own, and by setting his own type, 

wheeling his own paper and material through the streets, doing 

the work of printer, porter and author, established a business 

growing in profit and reputation. 

In 1730 he married a lady whom he had courted as a Miss 
Read, who had married in his absence, and whom he now mar- 
ried as a widow. 

He organized, probably, the first club in America, called 
"The Junto," in which were discussed scientific, moral and 
political subjects, and which after thirty years' existence was 
succeeded by the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. 

He procured a collection of books for the use of "The 
Junto," and thereby started the establishment of the Philadel- 
phia Library, the first public library in America. 

His efforts were always toward the intellectual and moral 
elevation of his fellows. He urged that the coin instead of 
having on it the image of a king, should have some pious or 
prudential maxim for the good it might do. 

At the age of twenty-seven he took up the study of the 
languages, mastered French, Spanish and Italian, and became 
proficient in Latin. 

In 1732 he commenced the publication of "Poor Richard's 
Almanac," which during its twenty-five years' publication be- 
came one of the most famous of American productions. 

In 1757 a summary of this almanac was published which 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 329 

was translated into foreign languages and republished through- 
out Europe. 

He endeavored to found a party or sect with the following 
creed : 

"I believe that there is but one God who made all things. 
That he governs the world by his providence. That he ought 
to be worshipped by adoration, prayer and thanksgiving. That 
the most acceptable service to God is doing good to man. That 
the soul is immortal, and that God will certainly reward virtue 
and punish vice, either here or hereafter," 

In 1736 he was chosen clerk of the general assembly, and 
in 1737 became postmaster of Philadelphia. He organized 
fire companies, reformed the police of the city, procured the 
paving and lighting of the streets, and was the founder of the 
college which became the University of Pennsylvania. He 
also obtained from the legislature a grant for the establishment 
and endowment of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and might well 
be said to have become the second founder of Philadelphia. 

He procured the organization of the State Military by 
which ten thousand men were soon trained for duty against the 
Indians, and unthought of preparation begun for the unfore- 
seen war for independence. 

He was offered high rank in one of the regiments, but de- 
clined in favor of one he deemed more competent for it. 

While his wide and varied reading made him walk hand 
in hand with the great thinkers of past ages, he lived in and 
labored for the present and future, and was above all things 
practical. He published a treatise on building chimneys ; in- 
vented a stove; and in every phase of private and public. life 
became so conspicuously useful that every movement sought 
his approval. 

In 1747 his attention was directed to electricity. He was 
the first man to give magnetism to needles of steel, melt metals, 
and kill animals by electricity. His picture showing him draw- 
ing the lightning from the clouds by means of a kite is and 
should be familiar to the school children of his country. 



.<^ 



330 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

This attracted world wide interest. Yale and Harvard 
conferred on him the degree of M. A. The celebrated Buffon 
made his discovery public on the continent. But the scientists 
of England and France by sneer, and charge that other 
scientists had preceded him, taught the old, old lesson that 
"he who surpasses or subdues mankind must look down on 
the hate of those below." 

The air, the ocean currents, the relative power of metals 
as conductors of heat ; the colors of the sun 's rays ; music and 
musical instruments ; and scores of matters of common interest 
claimed his efforts. 

He concluded a treaty with the Indians at Carlisle, and in 
1754 proposed the plan of the union of the colonies heretofore 
referred to. 

In his newspaper, ''The Pennsylvania Gazette," then ap- 
peared the first illustration in our newspaper history, a rude 
wood cut of a snake severed in parts, labeled with the colonies 
and the motto, "Unite or Die." 

He was made deputy postmaster-general by the British 
government, and made that public service, prior to that time 
unproductive, a profitable one. 

In 1757 he was sent to London as agent of the colony in 
their contest with the proprietors of Pennsylvania, and con- 
ducted the negotiations so well that he was entrusted with the 
agencies of Massachusetts, Georgia and Maryland. While there 
he was elected a member of the Royal Society, was admitted 
to the highest degrees in some of the Scotch and English 
universities, and formed friendships with men of learning that 
lasted throughout his life. His imparted knowledge of the 
country of which the English seemed to be so illy informed, 
and his portrayal of its importance were doubtless the primal 
causes of England's conquest of Canada and present possession 
of the vast area north of us. 

In 1762, having achieved the most wide-spread fame and 
distinction in Great Britain, he returned to Pennsylvania, 
whose assembly voted him its thanks and five thousand pounds 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 331 

for his services. To that assembly his election had been con- 
tinued during his absence, and in it he resumed his seat. 

In 1763 he made a tour of the northern colonies to regulate 
the postal system. 

In 1764 he again returned to England in behalf of the 
colonists, traveled and made friends of the illustrious in Hol- 
land, Germany and France, and was elected a member of the 
Academy of Sciences in Paris. 

The excitement in the colonies and parliament had grown 
in intensity, and in 1766 Franklin was summoned to attend 
the House of Commons for public interrogation on the vital 
questions between the colonies and mother country, and an- 
swered with such force and skill that the questions and an- 
swers were published and circulated all over Great Britain 
and America to his increasing fame with both. 

He earnestly sought to stem the rising tide of ill-feeling 
between the two countries, and in 1769 boldly predicted in his 
letter to a member of the British government that unless their 
oppressions ceased complete separation would come. 

He made many malignant enemies among the supporters 
of British methods, and in a discussion of American affairs 
before the privy council, was denounced by Mr. Wedderbourne, 
afterward Lord Loughborough and Lord High Chancellor, in 
the coarsest manner as a coward, murderer and thief. 

His dignity was unruffled, and his bearing as a gentleman 
in such contrast with this unseemly outburst before such a 
body, that this violence reacted to his advantage with the 
public there and here. 

Despite this, official animosity caused his removal as deputy 
postmaster-general, an office that had become lucrative to him. 

Said Mr. Berkley, in portraying to him British power on 
land and sea, "They will ravage your v^^hole country, and lay 
your seaport towns in ashes." 

With the heroic spirit of our fathers-, Franklin replied: 
"The chief part of my little property consists of houses, in 
those towns. Of these, indeed, you may make bonfires and 



332 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

reduce them to ashes ; but the fear of losing them will never 
alter my resolution to resist to the last the claims of parlia- 
ment." 

"When Lord Chatham, in 1775, introduced into the House of 
Lords his plan of conciliation, he frequently sought Franklin 
for information, saying, "I pay you these visits that I may 
rectify my judgment by yours, as men do their watches by a 
regulator." 

On visiting the House of Lords, Chatham walked arm in 
arm with Franklin, which much inflamed the ministerial party 
against the latter. 

In replying to Chatham's famous motion, Lord Sandwich 
denounced it as disgraceful to Chatham's name; that he did 
not believe it the product of a British peer, but, turning to 
Franklin, said: "I fancy I have in my eye the person who 
drew it up ; one of the bitterest and most mischievous enemies 
this country has ever known." 

Franklin stood as unmoved as if he had never heard him, 
and said he passed this insult as unnoticed as if his counte- 
nance had been of wood. 

Chatham replied to Sandwich that, "Were he prime min- 
ister he would not be ashamed to call publicly to his assistance 
a person so eminently acquainted with American affairs, and 
so ungenerously reflected upon as the gentleman alluded to; 
one whom all Europe holds in highest estimation for his 
knowledge and wisdom ; whom she ranks with her Boyles and 
her Newtons ; who is an honor, not to the English nation only, 
but to human nature." 

To be charged with a scheme of conciliation so sagacious, 
with the composition of a measure prepared by so illustrious 
a statesman as Chatham, and to be so highly complimented 
by that great character, himself, was indeed an honor that 
Franklin and his country may cherish with lasting and lauda- 
ble pride. 

Franklin's apparently impassive nature and cold reserve 
in public demeanor gave him, with some, the reputation of 



THE FKAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 333 

being callous and unfeeling. Yet Dr. Priestly wrote that 
Franklin so deeply felt the bloody consequences sure to follow 
a rupture between the mother country and her colonies, that 
as he was reading extracts from American papers to publish 
in England the tears flooded his cheeks, and he was so overcome 
that he was unable to proceed. 

Learning that official rancor was about to cause his arrest 
and imprisonment, Franklin left London, and returned to 
Philadelphia in 1775. 

Soon after his return to America he wrote this quaint and 
characteristic letter to Mr. Strahan of London, who had been 
the medium of communication between him and Lord North : 

"You are a member of parliament, and one of that majority 
which has doomed my country to destruction. You have 
begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon 
your hands ; they are stained with the blood of your relations ! 
You and I were long friends ; you are now my enemy, and I am. 

Yours, 

B. FRANKLIN. 

He was at once sent to the Continental Congress by Penn- 
sylvania ; by that body sent to Canada to induce that province 
to join with the colonies in the struggle for independence ; and 
afterwards put in charge of the postoffice department, — our 
first postmaster-general. 

He was the oldest of the signers of the Constitution, as he 
had been of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

In 1776 his great labors were added to by his selection as 
president of the convention to prepare a constitution for the 
state of Pennsylvania. 

When the congress decided to seek foreign aid of the 
colonies in their war for independence, all eyes turned to 
Franklin, and in October, 1776, for the third time he set sail 
for Europe. 

What a contrast the world-famous scientist, diplomat and 
statesman, the sole representative of his nation to the Old 
World presented to the poor printer boy that made his first 



334 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

voyage across the same ocean in search of a means of liveli- 
hood! 

Before leaving, he placed all his savings in money, some 
four thousand pounds, with the congress to aid, and stimulate 
others to similarly aid his needy country. This mark of confi- 
dence bore its worthy fruit in kindred patriotic effort. 

The most cordial welcome greeted him in France and Hol- 
land, where his skillful services in, not only enlisting moral 
support, but money and supplies, were most successful. He 
was too modest to ascribe the result to his own herculean 
efforts and personal popularity, but history recognizes that 
these did much to enable him to write home, 

"All Europe is on our side of the question, as far as ap- 
plause and good wishes can carry them. It is a common obser- 
vation here, that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and 
that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own. 
It is a glorious task assigned by Providence, which has, I trust, 
given us spirit and virtue equal to it, and will at last crown 
it with success." 

The accomplishments born of the midnight studies of the 
poor boy were reaping a rich reward for his country — more, 
for all mankind. 

Here he was being crowned, not only with the personal 
homage and confidence of the highest station and greatest 
wealth, but securing the all important succor of which his 
country stood in such imminent need. 

What an instructive lesson to American youth ! 

It was largely through his persuasive diplomacy that our 
treaty of alliance with France was concluded in 1778. This 
but added to his incessant labors in procuring funds, stores, 
and supplies for our armies, and shipping them to us. 

As an American representative, or ambassador, he main- 
tained the dignity of his station, and brooked no slight through 
him to his country. His ready wit when the Russian ambassa- 
dor left his card and expressed apprehension at the civility 
of a return diplomatic call is shown in the calm, but shrewd 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 335 

reply: "Prince Bariatinski has but to erase my name from his 
books of visits received, and I will burn his card. ' ' 

Count Bernstorf, replying for the Court of Denmark to 
Franklin's memorial respecting American prizes delivered up 
to Great Britain wrote: "Were you a person less known and 
respected, I should have been quite at a loss on the subject of 
your letter. I should have considered it as a measure calcu- 
lated to place us under a new embarrassment as painful as 
the first ; but there is no risk with such a sage as you are, sir, 
generally revered by the universe you have enlightened and 
known for that prevailing love of truth, which characterizes 
the well informed man and true philosopher. These are the 
titles which will transmit your name to the latest posterity, 
and in which I am particularly interested in relation to this 
unfortunate affair." 

Many adroit efforts were made to make him thv. victim of 
diplomatic intrigue, and induce through him a return of 
colonial allegiance. All met with signal failure. He was too 
cunning to be trapped. 

Sir William Jones, writing to the ministry of his fruitless 
efforts in that direction, said: "The sturdy, transatlantic 
yeomanry were neither to be dragooned nor bamboozled out 
of their liberty." 

When warned that threats of assassination Avere being 
made, he replied, "Perhaps the best use such an old fellow 
can be put to, is to make a martyr of him." 

In connection with John Adams, John Jay and Henry 
Laurens, he joined in the successful task of negotiating the 
treaty of peace with Great Britain and making the Declara- 
tion of Independence an accomplished f^-ct. 

Upon the consummation of the treaty he said, what may 
well be taken as a perpetual message to his country, "Had it 
not been for the justice of our cause, and the consequent inter- 
position of Providence, in which we had faith, we must have 
been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I should 
now have been convinced of the being and government of a 



336 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

deity. It is He that abases the proud and elevates the humble. 
May we never forget His goodness to us, and may our future 
conduct manifest our gratitude." 

He now asked congress for relief from his station and leave 
to return to his country, but not until 1785, when Thomas 
Jefferson succeeded him, was this boon granted him. Mean- 
time, he negotiated treaties with the kings of Sweden and 
Prussia. An article of the latter exempted the persons and 
property of non-combatants from the injuries of war, a humane 
clause he vainly endeavored to include in the British treaty. 

He was one of the first statesmen who endeavored to effect 
treaties that would prevent all wars, and uttered one epigram 
worthy perpetual memory: "There never was a good war, nor 
a bad peace." 

His popularity extended to all classes in France. Jefferson 
said: ''More respect and veneration is attached to the char- 
acter of Dr. Franklin, in France, than to that of any person 
in the same country, foreigner or native." 

He was a frequent visitor to the Academy of Sciences, and 
always received with most distinguished consideration. 

Just before leaving that country Voltaire returned and met 
him as a long absent friend. Some one said of their meeting: 
"It is Solon in the arms of Sophocles." 

Voltaire, placing his hand on the head of Franklin's grand- 
son, said: "God and liberty; this is the only device that be- 
comes the grandson of the great Franklin." 

To counteract the evil impressions given currency concern- 
ing the Americans and their governments by monarchical rep- 
resentatives, he had published in French an edition of the 
American Constitution, which he caused to be circulated 
throughout Europe. 

His plain and simple dress was maintained throughout his 
ten years' residence in France, yet no gorgeously garbed rep- 
resentative of any monarch received such homage at court as 
he. All of his life he contended for small salaries and sim- 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 337 

plicity in the life of the representatives of a free republic; to 
make them positions of honor, not of profit. 

His welcome home was universal and most enthusiastic. 
The members of congress, of the university, the city authorities 
and a vast crowd of people met him, while bonfires, salutes 
of artillery and the ringing of bells gave vent to the public 
joy. Washington and other leading men who could not attend 
sent their greetings in letters of cordial welcome. 

Though he was sorely afflicted, Pennsylvania claimed his 
services and elected him president of the state, a position he 
held for three years. 

During this time his state called upon him for the last 
great service he rendered that state and his country, to serve 
as one of its delegates to the convention called to frame a 
constitution for the United States, 

At this time, next to Washington, Franklin was the most 
revered man in America, and but for his age would probably 
have been chosen president of that convention. A third of a 
century before in the prime of his manly and mental vigor, 
he had submitted the national plan for the union of the 
colonies previously mentioned, and was now crowning the 
glories of his declining years by his all-powerful aid in securing 
a united country. His long, repeated and valuable services to 
his state and country, both at home and abroad, his genial wit, 
his instructive satire, his common-sense proverbs in "Poor 
Richard's Almanac," had made him as universally known as 
he was universally honored. Added to this was the due venera- 
tion accorded his age — he was the oldest member of the con- 
vention, as he was the oldest member of the Continental Con- 
gress who signed the Declaration of Independence. Too feeble 
to take his former active part in the animated discussions of 
the convention, he was constantly surrounded by its members 
who sought his wisdom and followed his lead. Ever ready 
with practical suggestions that appealed to the calm considera- 
tion of all, he was the balance-wheel in many of the troublous 
struggles of the convention. 



> 



338 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Near the close of the convention it began to look as if the 
efforts of the able patriots composing it would end in vain. 
Even Washington, whose stout heart never quailed before, 
whom doubt never discouraged in the trying hours of the 
Revolution, whose sublime faith in success cheered every 
comrade when others were sunk in the depths of despair, — 
Washington wrote to a friend: "I almost despair of seeing 
a favorable issue to the proceedings of the convention, and I 
do, therefore, regret that I have had any agency in the busi- 
ness." 

At this critical hour, Franklin arose, calmed the contentious 
convention and commended his memory to the Christian senti- 
ment of all time in the following address: 

''In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when 
we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room 
for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and 
they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged 
in the struggle, must have observed frequent instances of a 
superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Provi- 
dence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace 
on the means of establishing our future national felicity, and 
have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we 
imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, 
sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing 
proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of 
men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His 
notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? 
We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that except 
the Lord built the house, they labor in vain that build it. 
I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His con- 
curring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no 
better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided in our 
little, partial, local interests, our projects will be confounded, 
and we ourselves shall become a by-word down to future ages. 
And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this un- 
fortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 339 

human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. I, 
therefore, beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring 
the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations, 
be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to 
business, and that one or more of the clergy o* this city be 
requested to officiate in that service." 

After his service in the Constitutional Convention, the 
various societies of which he was president, the Philosophical 
Society ; for Political Inquiries ; for Alleviating the Miseries of 
Public Prisons; and for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, 
met at his house to reap the fruits of his counsel and wisdom. 
To the very last his unimpaired mental faculties made him an 
oracle whose counsel the wisest sjought. 

Upon his death April 17, 1780, congress ordered a general 
mourning of a month throughout America. In France the 
national assembly decreed that all members should wear mourn- 
ing for three days in his memory. No such honors as France 
paid him were ever accorded by a nation to a foreign citizen. 

He was unsurpassed in conversation, witty, wise and a 
fountain of information on everj subject. 

He was above middle size, of athletic frame, until the feeble- 
ness of age fell upon him of robust health ; possessed of head, 
face and bearing that marked a royal manhood, and made him 
a conspicuous character in any assemblage. 

Free from the weakness of vanity and false pride, he never 
obtruded, yet never shrunk from reference to his humble em- 
ployments in early life, or lost his interest in the poor. Kings, 
orators, statesmen, philosophers and men of world-wide fame 
crowned him with their admiring regard, but no adulation 
ever turned his head. 

No more remarkable man, or useful life was ever known in 
any age or by any people. No wasted hour marred its con- 
stant activity. 

His career more romantic than romance, stranger than 
fiction is an inspiration to every boy who grapples with poverty 
in this land of opportunity. 



340 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

His combination of virtues, patience, self-control, truthful- 
ness, candor, constancy in friendship, fidelity to obligation, 
Christian humility and ceaseless search for knowledge made 
his long and laborious life. a beacon light to youth and age. 

For all time he stands a monument to achievement ; to men 
who do things ; an eternal exem^^ar that no life is too humble 
to dare ambitious effort; no age too great for useful service; 
that any honest weapon with which one can conquer adversity 
and carve out a worthy destiny is noble in the hands of the 
brave and courageous. 

The lesson of that life, great to sublimity, is, what can one 
do, not for self, but for one's country, one's fellows — for 
mankind ? 

Jared IngersoU 

Jared Ingersoll was born at New Haven, Connecticut, in 
1750, and died at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 81, 1822. 

He graduated at Yale in 1776, and having spent five years 
in law study at the Middle Temple, London, England, returned 
to Philadelphia and began the practice of his profession. 

He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1780-81; 
was the first attorney- general of Pennsylvania and reelected 
for a second term ; declined the appointment of chief justice of 
the Supreme Court of the United States ; in 1812 was a candi- 
date for Vice-President; and at the time of his death was 
presiding judge of the District Court of Philadelphia. 

Said the eminent Horace Binney: "In his full vigor, which 
continued for nearly twenty years after the year 1797, I 
regard him as having been, without comparison, the most 
efficient manager of an important jury trial among all of the 
able men who were then of the Philadelphia bar." 

Jared Ingersoll, Sr., his father, was Connecticut's agent 
in England, where he ably and persistently opposed the passage 
of the Stamp Act. When it became a law he was delegated to 
serve as stampniaster. On his return to America, as he rode 
on horseback from New Haven to Hartford, five horsemen met 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 341 

and wheeled about as his escort. A few minutes later thirty 
horsemen did likewise. All rode in silence. Soon they met 
five hundred men armed with great white clubs and led by an 
officer in uniform. They opened from right to left and re- 
ceived Ingersoll in the center with profound courtesy. To 
martial music they marched on to Wethersfield. There he was 
ordered to resign. He said he ''must wait to learn the sense 
of the government." "Here is the sense of the government," 
they replied. "If I refuse to resign what will follow?" he 
asked. "Your fate," said the officer. He answered that the 
cause was not worth dying for, and signed the resignation 
prepared for him. He was required to shout "Liberty and 
Property" three times, and then escorted to Hartford. He 
rode a white horse, and someone asked him what he was think- 
ing about. He replied, "Death on a pale horse and hell fol- 
lowing." 

In 1770 he was appointed English admiralty judge and 
removed to Philadelphia, thus giving his gifted son to the 
galaxy of the great that illumine the history of that historic 
state, 

Thomas Mifflin 

Thomas Mifflin was born at Philadelphia in 1744, and died 
at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, January 21, 1800. 

His ancestors were among the most respected of the 
Quakers, and his father a man of large means. He distin- 
guished himself for classical scholarship at the College of 
Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1760, then entering a 
business career in the house of William Coleman at Philadel- 
phia. In 1765 he made an extended tour of Europe, and re- 
turned to resume commercial life in his native city. 

He was an orator of superior excellence. In 1772 he was 
chosen as one of the two representatives of Philadelphia in 
the state assembly, and in 1774 was one of the delegates to 
the Continental Congress. 

When the battle of Lexington was reported his patriotic 
zeal overcame his Quaker rearing, he enthusiastically advocated 



343 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEKS 

the appeal to arms, undertook the raising of troops, and was 
dismissed from the Quaker Society on that account. 

In his first patriotic address he said: ''Let us not be bold 
in declarations and afterward cold in action. Let not the 
patriotic feelings of to-day be forgot to-morrow, nor let it be 
said of Philadelphia that she passed noble resolutions, slept 
upon them, and afterward neglected them." 

And his actions equaled his words. He at once entered 
the army, was commissioned a major, went on to Boston where 
he distinguished himself by his her9ic action in battle, and 
was made chief aide-de-camp of Washington. His business 
ability was early recognized by his being made quartermaster- 
general by congress, on the recommendation of Washington, 
in which position he placed that department on an orderly and 
business basis. He was then commissioned brigadier-general 
and placed in command of the Pennsylvania troops in the New 
York campaign. 

In recognition of his ability as an orator, congress sent him 
throughout Pennsylvania to arouse patriotic sentiment and 
induce enlistment in the army, and well did he fulfill the com- 
mission. 

His rare executive ability forced his recall to the less 
conspicuous, but more arduous post of quartermaster-general, 
and there he was kept during the remainder of his military 
career, deprived of the opportunity to take part in any of the 
battles, except at Princeton in 1777, shortly after which 
congress made him a major general. 

His unfortunate connection with the "Conway Cabal" in 
its efforts to supplant Washington by Gen. Gates, as com- 
mander-in-chief, caused his own removal as quartermaster- 
general, and discharge from the board of war in 1778. 

By 1783, he had so outlived the public censure for this that 
he was elected to the Continental Congress, and by that body 
its president. It thus fell to his lot to receive, on behalf of 
congress, the resignation of Gen. Washington from the army. 
His eloquent and eulogistic address to Washington on that 



THE FKAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 3,13 

occasion was some atonement for his previous antagonism, and 
proof sufficient of his own condemnation of his own former 
misjudgment. 

Life holds no more difficult, or manlier part than the public 
acknowledgment of having done a wrong. The battlefield 
knows no loftier courage than that of the moral hero who 
rights his own injustice. 

In 1785 he entered the Pennsylvania legislature, and was at 
once chosen speaker; in 1788 became president of the state's 
Supreme Executive Council and a member of the Pennsylvania 
Constitutional Convention. As first governor of the state under 
that constitution, he succeeded Benjamin Franklin as its chief 
executive, and by successive reelections held that high office 
the last limit allowed by law until succeeded by Thomas 
McKean in 1799. 

In 1794 he commanded the Pennsylvania militia under Gen. 
Henry Lee of Virginia in suppressing the "Whiskey Rebel- 
lion" in western Pennsylvania. 

With the close of his long service as governor in 1799 he 
was denied by a devoted constituency the recuperative rest 
so urgently needed, and chosen to the state assembly. 

In less than a year he was numbered with the state's 
immortals. 

He was a man of pronounced military bearing, and im- 
pressive appearance, quick of movement, impetuous, but in- 
flexibly honest, and ever ready to rise to the height of noble 
and just action in correcting his own errors, when shown to 
be such, as he proved in his course toward Washington. 
Gouverneur Morris 

Gouverneur Morris was born at Morrisania, New York, 
January 31, 1752, and died in the room where he was born 
November 6, 1816. 

His ancestry, on his father's side, is given in the sketch 
of his half-brother, Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration 
of Independence. 

His mother was of the Huguenot family of Gouverneurs 



344 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PKAMEES 

that came to New York after the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes, and were among the prominent pioneers that made 
its worthy history. 

He graduated at King's (Columbia) College in 1768. 

As a student he was specially devoted to logic and oratory, 
to the classics, and above all to a constant study of Shakspeare. 
"While in college he contributed to the press a series of essays 
opposing the payment of the debt of New York incurred in 
the French and Indian wars by interest-bearing bonds, which 
did as much as the efforts of any legislator to settle the mat- 
ter, and established his reputation as an able, elegant and 
forceful writer. His precociousness was second only, if that, 
to that of Alexander Hamilton. 

In 1771 he began the practice of law, and was but entering 
upon a successful career as a lawyer when the beginning of 
the Eevolution called him to public life. He was averse to 
separation from Great Britain, saying: ''I see, and see it 
with fear and trembling, if the dispute with Britain continues, 
we shall be under the worst of all possible dominions ; the 
dominion of a riotous mob. It is to the interest of all men, 
therefore, to seek for reunion with the parent state." 

It can not be overlooked that many of the great founders 
of our free republic had a wholesome fear of an unrestrained 
democracy; that they desired stability of government and the 
orderly procedure of public affairs; that they did not believe 
in unlicensed liberty, but in liberty under wise and wisely 
enforced laws, where vested rights as well as freedom of 
opinion had equal regard. 

This is shown by their many public utterances during that 
eventful period, and their earnest efforts, as on the part of 
Morris, in the Constitutional Convention, to establish a stable 
government by offices of long tenure, and restricting the right 
to vote to those who owned property and paid taxes to sup- 
port the government they formed. 

In 1775 he was a delegate to the first Provincial Congress 
of New York, and took high rank for financial ability, suggest- 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 345 

ing, in a speech that attracted widespread attention, that the 
Continental Congress, not the states, should issue the currency 
of the country. The course he advocated was adopted by that 
congress. 

In 1776 he served on the committee that drafted the New 
York constitution, and did heroic service in securing com- 
plete religious liberty. 

The anti-Catholic element in the convention was very 
strong, and led by able men, and his tact and ability were 
taxed to the utmost to secure this just and coveted object. 
His splendid record in that convention placed him on the 
committee with the two foremost men of the state — John Jay 
and Robert R. Livingston — to organize the state, establish its 
courts, provide committees of safety and for the duties of 
legislation. From that time his reputation as an adept in 
constructive statesmanship was among the most noted in the 
country. 

In 1777 he took the seat in the Continental Congress va- 
cated by his half-brother, Lewis, and held it until the latter 
part of 1779. 

In that congress he not only achieved national distinction 
as an orator, as a committee worker of tireless industry and 
accomplished ability, as a master mind in phrasing legislation 
so as to express its purpose in clear, forceful and elegant lan- 
guage, but rendered most efficient aid to the army that cap- 
tured Burgoyne ; was one of the committee that visited Wash- 
ington at Valley Forge ; was a most earnest advocate of in- 
creased pay to officers and men ; and a most devoted admirer, 
and dauntless supporter of Washington when so bitterly 
assailed by the ''Conway Cabal." 

In 1799 he was chairman of the committee of five to con- 
sider the reports from the American commissioners in Europe, 
and draft instructions to our ministers there, and it was the 
report and draft of this committee that subsequently con- 
stituted the basis of the treaty of peace with Great Britain. 

Despite his brilliant career and preeminent services in the 



346 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Continental Congress, he was defeated for reelection in 1779, 
His oldest brother, Staats Long Morris, had taken sides with 
Great Britain, entered the British army, in which he after- 
wards rose to the rank of major-general. He also married the 
Duchess of Gordon, and passed the rest of his life in England, 

Such division of allegiance marked many American families. 
The only son of Benjamin Franklin was a prominent Tory, and 
so was the father of Edmund Kandolph. 

This, and his proposed visit to his sick mother, who lived 
within the British lines, provoked a storm of criticism and 
question of his own loyalty to the American cause. 

In addition, his course in congress had been directed more 
to national thaii New York state affairs, and alienated the 
support of those who held their state's above the united in- 
terests of the country as a whole. His position whereby Ver- 
mont was separated from New York and became an independ- 
ent state antagonized many in his native state. He thereupon 
took up his residence, and resumed the practice of his profes- 
sion in Philadelphia. 

When Robert Morris was made sole manager of American 
finances in 1781, he chose Gouverneur Morris as his first assist- 
ant. They were in no way related, but their intimacy in this 
service made them life-long friends, and for some time in the 
days of peace thereafter business associates. 

This appointment, and his failure of reelection to congress 
by New York, was how he came to be a resident of Philadel- 
phia, and subsequently sent as a delegate by Pennsylvania to 
the Constitutional Convention. 

In 1780 he was thrown from his carriage, and his leg so 
shattered it had to be amputated. Thereafter he wore a very 
plain wooden leg. He was one of the quickest-witted men our 
country ever knew. It is said that while in Paris as our 
minister during the French Revolution his carriage was beset 
by a mob crying out, "Aristocrat! Aristocrat!" Of French 
descent, and speaking their language like a native, he turned 
the jeers of the mob into cheers when he thrust his wooden 



THE FKAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 347 

leg out of his carriage window and in their own tongue 
shouted: "An aristocrat! Yes, one who lost his leg in the 
cause of American liberty." 

This may not have been in strict accord with the facts, or 
warranted by a political, akin to the poetic license, but it was 
a practical piece of "Yankee" diplomacy that served the pur- 
pose, and turned what might have been personal injury and 
national affront into good-humored applause and safety. 

In the great convention he advocated making the presi- 
dential office one for life, as well as life tenures for senators 
and a freehold qualification for voters. His views did not meet 
with favor, but free from unreasonable stubbornness, he joined 
in the compromises that crowned the work with success, ren- 
dered most efficient service in the work of the leading com- 
mittees and in the many debates, and won from Madison the 
high tributes : "To the brilliancy of his genius he added, what 
is too rare, a candid surrender of his opinions when the light 
of discussion satisfied him that they had been too hastily 
formed, and a readiness to aid in making the best of measures 
in which he had been overruled." 

"The finish given to the style and arrangement of the 
Constitution fairly belongs to Gouverneur Morris." 

In 1788 he sailed for Europe on private business, and 
traveled extensively abroad, as he ironically said, "to rub off 
in the gay circles of foreign life a few of those many barbar- 
isms that characterize a provincial education." 

In 1791 Washington honored him with the appointment of 
confidential agent to treat with the British government upon 
some unperformed conditions of the treaty of peace; and in 
1792 he was appointed United States minister to France. 

This station was then most delicate and trying. Our rela- 
tions with France were daily growing more and more strained. 
He maintained the strictest neutrality in expression and 
demeanor as between France and England, and thereby greatly 
incensed the French authorities — the Robespierre administra- 
tion — and when that government wrote the recall of Genet as 



348 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMERS 

their minister to the United States, the request was made for 
our government to recall Morris. 

For political reasons — for sake of international amity — ■ 
Washington acceded to the request, but privately wrote Morris 
a personal letter, commending his course. 

The commendation of Washington ever has been, and ever 
will be a certificate of character, that all America honors, 
applauds and indorses. 

This letter fell into French hands, and added to the 
estrangement between the nations. 

Washington, thereupon, sent as American minister, an 
avowed friend of the French Revolutionists in the person of 
James Monroe, who became our fifth President, and Morris 
closed his diplomatic career in 1794, 

He then made a second tour of Europe. While at Vienna 
he visited the imprisoned La Fayette, and made strenuous 
efforts to secure the release from the fortress of Olmutz of 
that heroic son of France whom he then held, and his country- 
men forever will hold in grateful honor and loving memory — 
the patriotic soldier, the lover of liberty, who staked his life 
and fortune in the cause of American independence. His 
devotion to and service in behalf of La Fayette forever endear 
his memory to the American people. He found La Fayette not 
only in prison, but his fortune gone, and he and his family 
reduced to abject want. As soon as he learned of the de- 
plorable condition of the patriot hero, he sent him ten thou- 
sand florins, and to Madame La Fayette a hundred thousand 
livres. When she, too, was cast into a Paris prison, he rescued 
her — she gratefully said, saved her from death. It was mainly 
through Morris' efforts and in his presence that the dungeon 
doors of La Fayette were at last opened, and he turned over 
to the American Consul at Hamburg. 

During this time he indulged in a voluminous correspond- 
ence with his friends at home. His comments in these letters 
upon the French government, the French Revolution, and the 
yulers and statesmen of Europe are, not only among the raciest, 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 349 

but the most profound ever written by an American to his 
countrymen. 

After an absence of ten years, in 1798 he returned to 
America, and resumed his residence in his native state of New 
York. By it he was sent the next year to the United States 
Senate, in which he rendered conspicuous service until March, 
1803. In the senate he vigorously opposed the abolition of the 
judiciary system, as then established, and the discontinuance 
of direct taxation, and with equal vigor supported the "Louisi- 
ana Purchase." 

Returning to New York, he was recalled to its public 
service, and from its creation until his death, was chairman 
of the commission on canals, which eventually consummated 
the great work of building the Erie Canal. 

He was, indeed, one of the most gifted and remarkable of 
American historic characters ; one of the most accomplished 
in written composition. His scholarly attainments, elegance 
of diction, felicitous and forceful form of expression made him 
a prominent member of the committee of five to express the 
Constitution in its final phraseology. Fearless, sharp-witted, 
self-sustained, clever and of extraordinary versatility, he was 
one of the most serviceable of the framers, whether in the 
thrill of appealing debate, or the quiet labors of the conven- 
tion's laborious committees. 

In his "Life of Clinton," James Renwick says of him as an 
orator: "Morris was endowed by nature with all the attributes 
necessary to the accomplished orator, a fine and commanding 
person, a most graceful demeanor, which was rather heightened 
than impaired by the loss of one of his legs, and a voice of 
much compass, strength and richness." 

His funeral orations on Washington, Clinton and Hamilton, 
and his last great effort, his address to the New York His- 
torical Society upon his inauguration as its president, are 
among the treasured American classics. 

His contributions as an author and pamphleteer through 



350 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

the press were numerous and notable as among the most fin- 
ished productions of any writer of the time. 

Though Jefferson and Hamilton improved it, he bears the 
name of the "Father of the American decimal system of cur- 
rency." The "dollar," he gave a permanent national place; 
the "cent," he originated. 

While no member of the convention had been a more 
strenuous advocate of a strong and enduring national gov- 
ernment, no statesman a more ardent Federalist, his opposition 
to the administrations of Jefferson and Madison led him in 
his later years to advocate the secession of the Northern 
States, the dissolution of the Union, and the destruction of the 
national government he had done so much to found and form. 

But when the brain-storm of sectional interest that reached 
the height of its fury on account of and during the war of 
1812 had passed away, and sober reflection restored him to his 
normal senses, he wrote this advice to his party associates, 
that Theodore Roosevelt, in his able biography of Morris, (all 
of which, and especially the last patriotic, impartial and states- 
manlike chapter, every American should read and cherish), 
well says, "He might well be content to let stand as a fitting 
close to his public career." 

"Let us forget party and think of our country. That 
country embraces both parties. We must endeavor, therefore, 
to save and benefit both. This cannot be effected while polit- 
ical delusions array good men against each other. H you 
abandon the contest, the voice of reason, now drowned in 
factious vociferation, will be listened to and heard. The pres- 
sure of distress will accelerate the moment of reflection; and 
when it arrives the people will look out for men of sense, 
experience, and integrity. Such men may, I trust, be found 
in both parties; and if our country be delivered what does it 
signify whether those who operate her salvation wear a federal 
or democratic cloak?" 

December 25, 1809, he married Miss Anne Gary Randolph, 



THE FKAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 35I 

a member of the famous Virginia family of that name. One 
child, a son, blessed their union. 

In person he so strongly resembled Washington that he 
was used as a model by the sculptor, Houdon, for the statue 
of Washington that now stands in the capitol at Richmond, 
Virginia. 

He was impulsive, sometimes hasty, courage personified, as 
gifted in sarcasm as in the niceties of speech, and not in- 
frequently became involved in trouble in consequence, but his 
warm and generous heart greatly atoned for these infirmities. 

A few days before he died he said: ''Sixty-five years ago 
it pleased the Almighty to call me into existence here on this 
spot, in this very room; and how shall I complain that He 
is pleased to call me hence." 

On the day of his death, being told the weather was fine, 
he said: "A beautiful day, but 

"Who to dumb forgetfulness a prey 
This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned, 
Left the warm precincts of this cheerful clay, 
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind." 

He had bought his ancestral home, and there closed his 
illustrous life, leaving a name and character that his country 
will ever cherish with commingled feelings of pride and grate- 
ful honor. 

Robert Morris 

Robert Morris was born in Lancashire, England, January 
20, 1734. 

His father was a merchant of some prominence in Liver- 
pool, who had a large trade with the colonies, and removed to 
Pennsylvania when Robert was thirteen years old, carrying 
on there an extensive trade as agent for vessels from his old 
home. 

Two years after his arrival he died from a wound inflicted 
by the wad of a cannon fired from one of these ships as a 



353 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

salute in his honor. He was highly esteemed, his neighbors 
providing in their wills for the protection of his tomb. 

His faithful dog refused to leave and died upon his grave. 

Left an orphan at fifteen, Robert closed his meager school 
career and entered the service of Charles Willing, the leading 
merchant of Philadelphia. He proved a profitable employee. 

At one time in Mr. Willing 's absence, he, being charged 
with the business, learned of the advance of the price of flour 
in England, and before the news got abroad bought nearly the 
entire stock in Philadelphia, realizing a handsome profit for his 
employer. The merchants complained of this, but Mr. Willing 
replied his clerk had done only what they would have done, 
had they first got the news. 

In 1754 he formed a partnership with the son of the man 
he always affectionately referred to as his master, which lasted 
until 1793 — thirty-nine years. Their commerce was the most 
extensive of any house in Philadelphia. 

His interest in the rights the colonies claimed was early 
enlisted, and though it occasioned severe personal loss on ac- 
count of their large trade in English goods, his house was one 
of the first to sign the non-importation agreement adopted by 
the Philadelphia merchants. 

In November, 1775, he was elected to the Continental Con- 
gress, and at once placed upon the committees to purchase 
arms and munitions of war, and provide a navy. 

He was empowered to negotiate bills of exchange with the 
promise of the congress to guarantee him against loss as the 
endorser of the paper that was really the obligations of the 
government. 

The money raised upon his own individual responsibility at 
the personal request of Washington enabled our great com- 
mander to win his victory at Trenton, with its saving and 
inspiring influence upon our discouraged countrymen. 

Says his great biographer: "Although his own brows were 
unadorned with the laurels of the warrior, it was his hand 
that crowned the heroes who triumphed on that day." 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 353 

On his own personal credit he frequently obtained money 
and supplies that our government could not have procured. 

When the exhausted credit of the government threatened 
the most alarming consequences; when the army was utterly 
destitute of the necessary supplies of food and clothing ; when 
the military chest had been drained of its last dollar, and 
even the confidence of Washington was shaken ; — Robert 
Morris, upon his own credit, and from his private resources, 
furnished the pecuniary means, without which all the physical 
forces of the country would have been in vain. 

Yet he was assailed in 1779 by charges preferred in congress 
of dealings detrimental to the government. His vindication 
by the unanimous vote of the investigating committee was 
complete. 

In 1780 he organized the Bank of North America, whose sole 
object was to raise money for the government, and heading the 
list with a subscription of 10,000 pounds, was followed by patri- 
otic subscriptions for 315,000 pounds more. 

In February, 1781, he was unanimously elected by the con- 
gress superintendent of finance. This imposed upon him bur- 
dens such as no secretary of the treasury has ever since borne. 

He was required to examine into the situation of the public 
debts, expenditures and revenue ; to digest and report plans 
for improving and regulating the finances, and for establishing 
order and economy in the disbursement of the public money; 
to direct the execution of all plans adopted by congress respect- 
ing revenue and expenditure ; to superintend the settlement of 
all public accounts ; to direct and control all persons employed 
in procuring supplies for the public service, and in the ex- 
penditure of public money ; to obtain accounts of all the issues 
of the specific supplies furnished by the several states ; to com- 
pel the payment of all monies due to the United States, and, in 
his official character, to prosecute in behalf of those states for 
all delinquencies respecting the public revenue and expendi- 
ture ; and to report to congress the officers necessary for con- 
ducting the various branches of his department. By successive 



354 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS f^RAMEES 

resolutions of congress he was subsequently empowered to ap- 
point and remove, at his pleasure, his assistants in his peculiar 
office, as well as those persons not immediately appointed by 
congress as were officially entrusted with the expenditure of the 
public supplies ; to appoint agents to prosecute or defend for 
him in his official capacity ; to manage and dispose of the monies 
granted by his most Christian majesty to the United States, 
and the specific supplies required from the several states; to 
procure on contract all necessary supplies for the army, navy, 
artificers and prisoners of war ; to make provision for the sup- 
port of the civil list ; to correspond with the foreign ministers 
of the United States upon subjects relating to his department; 
and to take under his care and management all loans and other 
monies obtained in Europe, or elsewhere, for the use of the 
United States. 

When he accepted this burdensome position, so subject to 
harsh criticism, the object of so much merited and so little re- 
ceived gratitude — the very root and trunk of the tree that ever 
in obscurity lifted to applauding view the leaves, fruit and 
flower of civic and military achievement that would always 
enshadow his efforts — he turned over his great private affairs 
to other hands. In accepting he wrote these lines, which his- 
tory honors as the heart-truths of one of the truest and great- 
est patriots this country should cherish with ever growing 
gratitude : 

"In accepting the office bestowed on me I sacrifice much 
of my interest, my ease, my domestic enjoyments and internal 
tranquillity. If I know my own heart, I make these sacrifices 
with a disinterested view to the service of my country. I am 
ready to go still further ; and the United States may command 
everything I have except my integrity, and the loss of that 
would effectually disable me from serving them more." 

He faced this condition of affairs as pictured by Washing- 
ton's own pen: 

"I see one head gradually changing into thirteen. I see 
one army branching into thirteen ; and, instead of looking up to 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 355 

congress as the supreme controlling power of the United States, 
considering themselves as dependent on their respective states. 
In a word, I see the power of congress declining too fast for 
the consequence and respect which are due to them as the great 
representative of America and am fearful of the consequences. 

"Instead of having magazines filled with provisions we have 
a scanty pittance scattered here and there in the several states. 
Instead of having our arsenals well supplied with military- 
stores they are poorly provided and the workmer all leaving 
them. Instead of having the various articles of field equipage 
ready to deliver, the quartermaster-general is but now apply- 
ing to the several states (as the dernier resort) to provide these 
things for the troops respectively. Instead of having a regular 
system of transportation established upon credit, or funds in 
the quartermaster's hands to defray the contingent expenses 
of it, we have neither the one nor the other ; and all that busi- 
ness, or a great part of it, being done by military impressment, 
we are daily and hourly oppressing the people, souring their 
tempers and alienating their affections. Instead of having the 
regiments completed to the new establishments, scarce any 
state in the Union has, at this hour, one-eighth part of its quota 
in the field, and there is little prospect, that I can see, of ever 
getting more than one-half. In a word, instead of having 
everything in readiness to take the field, we have nothing; and, 
instead of having the prospect of a glorious offensive campaign 
before us, we have a bewildered and gloomy prospect of a de- 
fensive one, unless we should receive a powerful aid of ships, 
land troops and money from our generous allies ; -and these at 
present are too contingent to build upon." 

No warrior on any field ever more bravely or grandly faced 
a foe than did Morris these overwhelming odds, or win vic- 
tories more signal. His personal credit, his tireless energy, his 
indomitable will, his gigantic ability triumphed, and his meed 
of grateful praise should not be second even to that of the 
great Father of His Country, who said, **The abilities of the 
present financier have done wonders." 



356 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

It was due to him that our armies did not throw down their 
guns and return to their homes. 

To carry out his plans he organized the Bank of North 
America, and urged that congress seek from the states power 
to organize a similar bank in each of the states, prohibiting 
all other banks until the war was ended, virtually suggesting 
the very system of national banks that today constitute the 
test banking system that any nation has ever known. 

He urged that this might in the end "prove the means of 
saving the liberties, lives and property of the virtuous part of 
America and unite the several states more closely together in 
one general money connection, and attach many powerful indi- 
viduals to the cause of our country by the strong principle of 
self-interest. ' ' 

On July 31, 1781, congress sent Richard Peters and Mr. 
Morris to confer with Washington as to supplies for the cam- 
paign to capture New York City. 

According to Mr. Peters, the campaign against New York 
was not a feint but a well studied plan of Washington, that 
was abandoned when Count de Grasse announced that he would 
not enter the harbor with the French fleet but intended to sail 
for Chesapeake Bay. Then occurred one of the scenes of 
Washington's wrath that those who witnessed never forgot, 
and a rapid change of his plan of campaign that shows his 
extraordinary military genius. He determined to follow the 
fleet and capture Cornwallis instead of New York City. At 
breakfast next morning they found him making out lists of the 
supplies needed as calmly as if no disappointment had over- 
thrown his cherished plan. 

To move the army and provide munitions required what 
was at that day an enormous sum. Morris informed Wash- 
ington that he had no means whatever to furnish the money 
but must rely solely on his own credit. On that reliance alone 
Washington entered upon the campaign that closed the war. 

On his personal credit Morris raised the money to carry on 
that campaign, and a second time Washington was enabled to 



THE FKAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 357 

defeat and this time capture Cornwallis and his entire army. 
And so, as the private citizen, the patriot, Robert Morris, rather 
than the financial agent or secretary of the treasury of the 
Confederated States, made it possible for Washington to win 
his last great victory on the field of war and end the long and 
bloody struggle for independence. To accomplish this mo- 
mentous achievement he gave his own notes for $1,400,000. 
So great was the public confidence in him that they suffered 
but little depreciation, while the national notes were at such 
enormous |iisconnt as to be almost valueless. 

His arguments, appeals, entreaties to the states to do their 
simple duty, ending at last with the reminder that military 
force would be used, would fill a volume. 

During all these ceaseless efforts to collect the promised and 
long past due revenues he was perpetually beset by clamorous 
creditors whose claims were just, and often exposed to open 
insult for not meeting the obligations that were not his but his 
country 's. 

Nor was this his only burden. Calumnies of every character 
were poured upon him ; charges of private speculation and the 
amassing of enormous wealth ; favoritism to a few and every 
vile accusation that jealousy and malice could invent or hos- 
tility to American independence suggest. 

At last, hostilities ended, he determined to leave the thank- 
less post of such gigantic burdens and sent his resignation to 
the congress. It created such consternation that congress put 
an injunction of secrecy upon it. No other man in America 
could be found to fill his place. Congress entreated him to 
continue in the office and promised relief by procuring the 
states to do their plain and simple duty — pay what they owed 
for the debts due by all. 

A board of three of the ablest financiers of the coimtry 
were appointed to do in peace what this greatest of our finan- 
ciers had done single-handed and alone throughout the war, 
and in November, 1784, he gave up his high commission. 

Says the great biographer of his day : 



358 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

"In rendering an account of his stewardship he published 
an address to the inhabitants of the United States, which, to- 
gether with the comprehensive details of his mode of managing 
the finances, ought to be incorporated in the course of the his- 
torical education of American youth. His concluding words 
were written in the true spirit of political foresight and were 
only rendered nugatory by the establishment of the federal 
Constitution. 

"The inhabitant of a little hamlet may feel pride in the 
sense of separate independence, but if there be not one gov- 
ernment which can draw forth and direct the efforts, the com- 
bined efforts, of United America our independence is but a 
name, our freedom a shadow, and our dignity a dream. To you, 
fellow citizens, these sentiments are addressed by one who has 
felt their force. In descending from that eminence on which 
your representatives had placed him he avoids the shafts which 
calumny had aimed. He has no longer, therefore, any per- 
sonal interest in those jealousies and distrusts which have em- 
barrassed his administration and may prove your ruin. He no 
longer asks confidence in hijnself, but it is his duty to declare 
his sincere opinion, that if you will not repose in the members 
of that general federal government which you yourselves have 
chosen that confidence and those powers which are necessary 
you must, and you will (in no very distant period), become 
the dupes of European politics. What may be the final event 
time only can discover ; but the probability is that, first divided, 
then governed, our children may lament, in chains, the folly 
of their fathers. May heaven avert these evils and endue us 
with wisdom so to act as may best promote the present and 
future peace, prosperity and happiness of our country." 

On the retirement of this eminent man from office it was 
affirmed by two members of the Massachusetts delegation 
"that it cost congress at the rate of eighteen millions per an- 
num, hard dollars, to carry on the war, till he was appointed 
financier, and then it cost them but about four millions." 

Says the Italian historian, Botta : 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 359 

"The Americans certainly owed, and still owe, as much ac- 
knowledgment to the financial operations of Robert Morris as 
to the negotiations of Benjamin Franklin, or even to the arms 
of Washington." 

Throughout Europe his fame as a financier was in excess 
of what it was at home. 

In sorest affliction he had seen and felt the deplorable re- 
sults of an inefficient federal government. The weakness of 
the congress, the excessive powers of the states had been the 
first and continuing causes that had hampered his efforts and 
thwarted his plans. With the ablest of his associates in the 
long struggles that "tried men's souls" he became an advocate 
for the revision of the Articles of Confederation and was sent 
to the constitutional convention. In it his great ability, past 
experience and practical business sagacity made him as useful 
as prominent. 

Pennsylvania sent him as one of her two chosen sons to the 
first senate of the United States. Washington offered him the 
position of our first secretary of the treasury, but he declined 
and recommended Alexander Hamilton. 

He was the first American to send a ship flying our flag 
to China and the Orient. 

He not only used his wealth for his country, but his philan- 
thropies and charities were many. 

Amidst thousands of defalcations his country never lost 
one cent through him, though millions passed through his hon- 
est hands. 

In his business he was exact in all his dealings, prompt and 
faithful in every engagement. 

He seldom spoke in congress or in public, but was a thinker 
whose clear reasoning and thorough information made him an 
impressive speaker if not an orator. 

In 1769 he married Miss Mary White, sister of Bishop White 
of Philadelphia, whose culture and refinement made theirs one 
of the most attractive of Philadelphia homes. 



360 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

He was a large man, simple in manners, plain in dress, of 
benevolent countenance and dignified carriage. 

No higher encomium could be paid than the fact that when- 
ever Washington visited Philadelphia Morris' home was the 
first place he visited, and Morris himself always had his im- 
plicit confidence, his highest regard. 

When in his age misfortune swept away his wealth and 
poverty sorely oppressed him he could not walk the streets of 
the city that had known him for so many years without a grate- 
ful crowd of the middle and lower classes thronging about 
him. 

In his sturdy manhood he held in his firm grasp the finances 
of his whole country and in providing the sinews of war did 
as much to direct its destiny as did Washington on a more 
conspicuous field. 

In his age for more than three years — February, 1798, to 
August, 1801 — the door of a debtor's prison closed upon him. 
Verily riches have wings. 

In his later years he suffered greatly from asthma. Not 
singly did afflictions come. 

On May 8, 1806, in his seventy-third year, this bearer of our 
nation 's burdens, the financier of the Revolution ; the stalwart 
form that gave Washington his strongest support, closed a 
career that his country should crown with its eternal, grateful 
honor. 

James Wilson 

With a nation's reverent gratitude, in November, 1906, an 
American warship brought to Philadelphia the ashes of one 
of the leading founders of our republic. For over one hundred 
and eight years they had rested at Edenton, North Carolina. 
In the old Independence Hall, where he signed the Declaration 
of Independence, that was to be for him either an immortal 
scroll or death warrant, and where his genius and learning 
did so much to frame our country's Constitution, they rested 
in state and were paid the homage of the nation, and the peo- 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 361 

pie of a city that he honored in making his home. On the 22d 
of that month, escorted by one of the most distinguished assem- 
blages and imposing pageants that city ever saw, they were 
borne to their final tomb. 

The national government that brought his dust to the scene 
of his life-work sent its high officials to do him honor. The 
supreme court of the United States, of which he was one of the 
first justices chosen by Washington, by one of its members; 
the American Bar Association by its president; Pennsylvania's 
attorney-general; our coimtry's greatest philanthropist, a son 
of his native Scotland, and lord rector of St. Andrews, his 
Alma Mater — all joined to voice not only the tribute of his 
adopted but his native land to his character and achievements. 

James Wilson, in whose honor a grateful nation paid this 
tardy homage, was born in Scotland, September 14, 1742. 

His father was a farmer of modest means, who educated his 
gifted son at Edinburgh and the famous University of St, 
Andrews. Seldom, if ever, has any university had such an 
array of instructive talent as that great university then had. 
The great historians, David Hume and Adam Ferguson ; Adam 
Smith, the father of political economy ; Hugh Blair and William 
Robertson, masters in rhetoric, logic and history, were among 
their number. Under them this man, remarkable in his youth 
for intellectual powers, pursued his studies, and as without a 
single exception has marked the career of every noted Amer- 
ican, laid in youth the foundation of that studious application 
and industrious habit that led to the lofty heights of his man- 
hood 's achievement. 

He came to America in 1765, first to New York, in 1766 re- 
moving to Philadelphia. 

His proficiency in Latin procured for him the position of 
tutor in the University of Pennsylvania, but he soon left this 
for the office of that great lawyer and greater writer, known 
by his masterly letters as "The American Farmer," John 
Dickinson. 

Like the majority of the Scotch emigrants — and five of 



362 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Scotch nativity or descent were signers of the Declaration of 
Independence — his sympathies were with the colonies from 
before his seeking our shores. 

The example and influence of his great preceptor, one of 
the most potent and prolific writers of the period, doubtless 
added to win him heart and soul to the American cause, and 
he became one of the most influential and widely known writers 
in its behalf. 

In one of his early cases he appeared for the landholders 
against the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, his opponent being 
the attorney-general. His argument was so masterly that his 
associates, one of whom was the celebrated lawyer, Joseph 
Reed, decided to submit the case on his argument alone. The 
celebrity of the case gave him immediate prominence. 

His keenness as a logician, his profound knowledge of the 
law, for which he was naturally adapted, his trained accom- 
plishments as a speaker, his grace and force of delivery, soon 
put him at the very front of his profession and gave him a 
reputation second to no member of the Philadelphia bar. 

He became a member of the provincial assembly in 1774, 
taking such a distinguished part in its proceedings that he was 
nominated with his old preceptor, John Dickinson, for the first 
Continental Congress, but on account of the opposition, princi- 
pally to Mr. Dickinson, both were defeated. 

The next year, with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Will- 
ing, he was unanimously chosen by the assembly as a delegate 
and continued in the congress until March, 1777, when the 
party spirit that denied him reelection provoked this letter 
from Robert Morris : 

"I am told our assembly do not intend you shall be in the 
new list of delegates. I am too busy to attend or I would 
contest the matter firmly, although I well know that the hon- 
esty, merits and ability which you possess in so eminent a de- 
gree would not be sufficient pleas against the previous determi- 
nation of a strong party ; for that, I am told, is the case. You 
are to be deprived of the opportunity of continuing those serv- 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 363 

ices to your country, which she so much needs, and which, if 
I mistake not, she will feel the want of, until better men in 
better times shall call you forth again." 

His confidence in the judgment of the people and his defer- 
ence to their will inspired his action in regard to the Declara- 
tion of Independence that cost him his seat in congress and the 
major part of the adverse criticism that was visited upon him. 
While he signed the declaration, he opposed the making of it 
at the time, and the storm of denunciation visited upon his 
head for his action was so severe that John Hancock, Thomas 
Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams and eighteen other 
patriots joined in signing the following remarkable testimonial: 

** Whereas, It has been represented to the congress that re- 
ports have been circulated concerning Mr. Wilson, one of the 
delegates of Pennsylvania, to the disadvantage of his publick 
character and that misrepresentations have been made for his 
conduct in congress: 

"We, the subscribers, members of congress, do therefore 
certify that in a late debate in this house upon a proposition to 
declare these colonies free and independent states Mr. Wilson, 
after having stated the progress of the dispute between Great 
Britain and the colonies, declared it to be his opinion that the 
colonies would stand justified before God and the world in 
declaring an absolute separation from Great Britain forever; 
and that he believed a majority of the people of Pennsylvania 
were in favor of independence, but that the sense of the assem- 
bly (the only representative body then existing in the province) 
as delivered to him by their instructions was against the propo- 
sition ; that he wished the question to be postponed, because he 
had reason to believe the people of Pennsylvania would soon 
have an opportunity of expressing their sentiments upon this 
point, and he thought the people ought to have an opportunity 
given them to signify their opinion in a regular way upon a 
matter of such importance — and because the delegates of other 
colonies were bound by instructions to disagree to the propo- 
sition and he thought it right that the constituents of these 



364 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

delegates should also have an opportunity of deliberation on 
said proposition, and communicating their opinions thereon to 
their respective representatives in congress — the question was 
resumed and debated the day but one after Mr. Wilson deliv- 
ered these sentiments, when the instructions of the assembly 
referred to were altered and new instructions given to the 
delegates of Pennsylvania. Mr. Wilson then observed that, 
being unrestrained, if the question was put, he should vote 
for it ; but he still wished a determination on it to be postponed 
for a short time until the deputies of the people of Pennsyl- 
vania who were to meet should giA^e their explicit opinion 
upon this point so important and interesting to themselves and 
their posterity ; and also urged the propriety of postponing the 
question for the purpose of giving the constituents of several 
colonies an opportunity of removing their respective instruc- 
tions whereby unanimity would probably be obtained." 

From that time to 1782 he devoted his energies to the most 
extensive law practice in the state, during which period he was 
leading counsel for Pennsylvania in the contest between that 
state and Connecticut over the Wyoming valley lands, in which 
he was successful. 

His fame as a lawyer brought him in 1779 the appointment 
of advocate general for France in the United States, which he 
held until 1783. As confidential counselor of their chief ally 
he was able to do much toward bringing that aid from France 
of which the struggling states stood in such dire need. 

In 1781 congress made him a director of the Bank of North 
America. 

In 1782 his increasing fame overcame all partisan opposi- 
tion, and he was elected to congress, and again in 1785 and 
1786. In 1790 he became the first professor of law in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, and, with Thomas McKean, published 
commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. 

As early as January, 1775, in an address of exti^aordinary 
power before the Pennsylvania convention, wherein he vindi- 
cated the conduct and claims of the colonies, he foreshadowed 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 355 

their united and armed resistance to British aggression. In 
this great argument, unsurpassed by any of the period for 
logical reasoning, historical illustration and judicial precedent, 
he contended that the royal interference with the charters of 
the colonies was against the express and established law of 
Great Britain, and justified the united, forceful action of the 
colonists, as was justified by the united actions of the barons 
at Runnymede, who wrung from royal tyranny the priceless 
Magna Charta. 

Contending that the use of force by Great Britain against 
colonial charter rights was in violation of the British constitu- 
tion, against the law and without authority, he said : 

"Have not British subjects a right to resist such force — ■ 
force acting without authority — force employed contrary to law 
— force employed to destroy the very existence of law and of 
liberty? They have, and this right is secured to them both by 
the letter and the spirit of the British Constitution, by which 
the measures and the conditions of their obedience are ap- 
pointed. The British liberties, and the means and the right of 
defending them, are not the grant of princes ; and of what our 
princes never granted they surely can never deprive us." 

He could and did comprehend and appreciate to the fullest 
the grievances common to all of the colonies. English history 
and English legal precedent abundantly justified the colonial 
contentions. But he never could or did comprehend the claim 
of each for separate sovereignty. To him the Revolution 
welded them into one community and left them independent of 
Great Britain, but not of each other. The independence that 
they had in common achieved he believed could be only in 
common maintained — that unity accomplished and unity must 
preserve it. 

But in that federal unity he realized and said a government 
was formed without a precedent that blazed its way through 
paths unknown, and held that if "the line between the author- 
ity of the national government and that of the several states 
should be traced with clearness, neither vacancies nor inter- 



S66 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

ferences would be found between the limits of the two juris- 
dictions." 

He was never a popular man. His public positions, his 
prominent place he held by sheer force of intellect. He was a 
worker. His retentive memory held in lasting grip and ready 
reference the vast volume of his reading in law, literature and 
history, and made him by common consent the best read, most 
profoundly informed constitutional lawyer of his day. 

In 1779 his opposition to the state constitution, under which 
he and many prominent men refused to accept office because 
they could not swear to support it, directed heated hostility 
to him as an enemy of popular government. This and his de- 
fense, as a lawyer, of the merchants of Philadelphia, many of 
whom were Tories, for refusing to sell their goods at prices 
fixed by the legislature, was the cause of a mob attacking his 
residence. On account of this incident his house was known 
thereafter as ''Fort "Wilson." 

But for the timely arrival of the troops he and a number 
who had taken refuge there, some of whom were prominent 
afterwards in our country's service, would have been killed by 
the excited populace. 

Says Sanderson: 

"Whilst Mr. Wilson was in congress he was considered as 
one of its ablest members, and was, perhaps, more engaged in 
the business of committees than any of his colleagues. His 
political standing was deservedly high and he was always 
listened to with respectful attention. He particularly distin- 
guished himself in all those weighty questions which were agi- 
tated in that important crisis when the settlement of our af- 
fairs, both civil and military, commanded the most serious and 
anxious attention. In June, 1775, he was of the committee 
which prepared an eloquent appeal to the assembly of Jamaica ; 
and in July of the same year, when the Indians were divided 
into three departments, the northern, middle and southern, and 
commissioners, appointed by congress, to superintend Indian 
affairs in behalf of the colonies, he was elected a commissioner 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 367 

for the middle department. He was also a member of the 
several committees to take into consideration the state of the 
colonies and report what number of forces would be neces- 
sary for their defense ; to prepare a letter to the inhabitants 
of Canada; to prepare an address to the united colonies; to 
take into consideration the state of the Indians in the middle 
department; to consider on the most speedy and effectual 
means for supporting the American cause in Canada ; to confer 
with General Washington and concert a plan of military opera- 
tions; to devise ways and means for supplying the treasury; 
to form an effectual plan for suppressing the internal enemies 
of America; to devise and execute measures for effectually 
reinforcing General "Washington and obstructing the progress 
of General Howe's army; to take into consideration the state 
of the army ; to explain to the several states the reason which 
induced congress to enlarge the powers of General Washington ; 
to consider what steps were necessary to be taken should the 
enemy attempt to penetrate through New Jersey or to attack 
Philadelphia; to devise a plan for encouraging the Hessians 
and other foreigners employed by the king of Great Britain 
and sent to America for the purpose of subjecting the states 
to quit that iniquitous service, etc., etc., etc. He was a mem- 
ber of the standing committee for Indian affairs and of the 
standing committee appointed to hear and determine upon 
appeals brought against sentences passed on libels in the courts 
of admiralty in their respective states. He was also attached 
to the first board of war. In fact, no member was more fre- 
quently called upon to exert his talents, and no member ex- 
hibited more industry, capacity and perseverance in obeying 
the calls of his adopted country." 

His congressional career, his distinguished part in its great- 
est debates, his increasing fame as an orator of transcendant 
ability; his part before the courts of Pennsylvania and ad- 
jacent states had given him the reputation of being the first 
constitutional lawyer of the country, and all eyes turned to 
him when the convention was called to frame that highest 



368 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMEES 

production of human skill, or rather revise what the country 
then considered the chart for its united future — our Constitu- 
tion. 

He entered that great convention on the first day it had a 
quorum, and gave it to the end the most thoughtful, earnest 
and laborious efforts of his life. 

Above all the statesmen of that distinguished body he be- 
lieved in the wisdom of the people, in the policy and safety of 
entrusting to them their own self-government, and strove to 
place in their hands the conduct of that government from 
first to last. He favored the election by the people not only 
of their representatives in the lower house of congress but in 
the senate, and of President and Vice-President. His plan was 
to have larger districts in the respective states elect the sena- 
tors than was required to elect representatives, and a majority 
of the whole people elect the President and Vice-President — 
to make the national as well as state governments both govern- 
ments directly of the people. 

Nor was he for the consolidation of the Union to the oblit- 
eration of state lines and state autonomy. 

No one stood more strenuously for the preservation of state 
authority in local and domestic affairs — the theory and prac- 
tice of local self-government. 

His comprehension of a federal system, wherein state su- 
premacy in local, national supremacy in general matters — an 
indestructible union of indestructible states — was probably the 
most profound of any member of the convention other than 
Madison. But he strove for that supremacy in each to come 
direct from the same fountain head — the people. He had im- 
plicit faith in a dual citizenship, national and state. He be- 
lieved in a national government that reached to and acted di- 
rectly upon the people of every state, and in the same way in 
the people of every state, without the intervention of the legis- 
latures or electoral colleges, choosing their rulers and repre- 
sentatives by their own votes. 

With Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham and Ellsworth he was 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 359 

made one of the committee of detail that reported the draft 
of the Constitution on August 6, 1787. 

His ability as a debater forced him to almost daily partici- 
pation in the discussions of that splendid assemblage of our 
notables to his constant growth in the regard of all. 

He opposed the equality of state representation, arguing 
that their representation and vote should be based upon popu- 
lation, saying: 

"Inequality in representation poisons every government. 
The English courts are hitherto pure, just and incorrupt, while 
their legislature is base and venal. The one arises from unjust 
representation, the other from their independence of the legis- 
lature. Lord Chesterfield remarks that one of the states of 
the United Netherlands withheld its assent to a proposition 
until a major of their state was provided for; he needed not 
to have added (for the conclusion was self-evident) that it was 
one of the lesser states. I mean no reflection ; but I leave it 
to gentlemen to consider whether this has not also been the 
case in congress." 

On the same subject he remarked: 

"Confederations are usually of a short date. The 
Amphyctionic council was instituted in the infancy of the 
Grecian republics ; as those grew in strength the council lost 
its weight and power. The Archaan league met the same fate ; 
Switzerland and Holland are supported in their confederation, 
not by its intrinsic merit, bvit the incumbent pressure of sur- 
rounding bodies. Germany is kept together by the house of 
Austria. True, congress carried us through war, even against 
its own weakness. That powers were wanting you, Mr. Presi- 
dent (Washington), must have felt. To other causes, not to 
congress, must the success be ascribed. That the great states 
acceded to the confederation, and that they in the hour of dan- 
ger made a sacrifice of their interest to the lesser states, is 
true. Like the v/isdom of Solomon, in adjudging the child to 
its true mother, from tenderness to it, the greater states well 
knew that the loss of a limb was fatal to the confederation; 



370 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

they, too, through tenderness, sacrificed their dearest rights 
to preserve the whole." 

In the Pennsylvania convention, called to pass upon the 
adoption of the Constitution, he was, by common consent, 
looked to and proved to be the chief exponent in its favor. In 
it his elaborate discussion of the Constitution, section by sec- 
tion, was the most masterly, save the Federalist, of any of 
the great efforts of the day, was published and circulated in 
every colony and used as a text by those favoring its adop- 
tion. 

His great argument concluded as follows : 

"It is neither extraordinary nor unexpected that the Con- 
stitution offered to your consideration should meet with oppo- 
sition. It is the nature of man to pursue his own interest in 
preference to the public good, and I do not mean to make any 
personal reflection when I add that it is the interest of a 
numerous, powerful and respectable body to counteract and 
destroy the excellent work produced by the late convention. 
All the officers of government and all the appointments for the 
administration of justice, and the collection of the public rev- 
enue, which are transferred from the individual to the aggre- 
gate sovereignty of the states, will necessarily turn the stream 
of influence and emolument into a new channel. Every person, 
therefore, who either enjoys or expects to enjoy a place of 
profit under the present establishment will object to the pro- 
posed innovation — ^not, in truth, because it is injurious to the 
liberties of his country, but because it affects his schemes of 
wealth and consequence. I will confess, indeed, that I am not 
a blind admirer of this plan of government, and that there are 
some parts of it which, if my wish had prevailed, would cer- 
tainly have been altered. But when I reflect how widely men 
differ in their opinions, and that every man, and the observa- 
tion applies likewise to every state, has an equal pretension to 
assert his own, I am satisfied that anything nearer to perfec- 
tion could not have been accomplished. If there are errors it 
should be remembered that the seeds of reformation are sown 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 37I 

in the work itself and the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
congress may at any time introduce alterations and amend- 
ments. Regarding it, then, in every point of view, with a 
candid and disinterested mind, I am bold to assert that it is 
the best form of government which has ever been offered to the 
world." 

On the appointment of the first members of the supreme 
court of the United States, in 1789, Washington nominated for 
chief justice John Jay; for associate justices John Rutledge of 
South Carolina, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, William Gush- 
ing of Massachusetts, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and John 
Blair of Virginia. 

In that great office he spent the balance of his life. 

While he ranked high as a jurist, many who knew him best 
thought that, like England's great advocate, Erskine, he shone 
brighter at the bar than he did upon the bench, but the far- 
reaching effect of his judicial opinions give him in this day a 
fame second to none of our jurists. 

In the celebrated case of Chisholm vs. the State of Georgia, 
which brought about the Eleventh Amendment to the Consti- 
tution, he took the affirmative view of the great question that 
was finally decided in the Civil war. Is the United States a 
nation? (2 Dallas, U. S. Supreme Court Reports, page 419.) 

In that decision he said : 

' ' This is a case of uncommon magnitude. One of the parties 
to it is a state ; certainly respectable, claiming to be sovereign. 
The question to be determined is whether this state, so re- 
spectable, and whose claim soars so high, is amenable to the 
jurisdiction of the supreme court of the United States? This 
question, important in itself, will depend on others more im- 
portant still, and may, perhaps, be ultimately resolved into one 
no less radical than this, 'Do the people of the United States 
form a nation?' (Page 453.) 

''With the strictest propriety, therefore, classical and po- 
litical, our national scene opens with the most magnificent ob- 



372 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

ject which the nation could present. 'The people of the United 
States' are the first personages introduced. Who were those 
people? They were the citizens of thirteen states, each of 
which had a separate constitution and government and all of 
which were connected together by Articles of Confederation. 
To the purpose of public strength and facility that confederacy 
was totally inadequate, and a requisition on the several states 
terminated its legislative authority; executive or judicial au- 
thority it had none. In order, therefore, to form a more per- 
fect union, to establish justice, to insure domestic tranquillity, 
to provide for the common defense, and to secure the blessings 
of liberty, those people, among whom were the people of 
Georgia, ordained and established the present Constitution. 
By that Constitution legislative power is vested; executive 
power is vested; judicial power is vested." (Page 463.) 

In this celebrated opinion, so frequently since quoted with 
eulogistic approval on the one hand, and bitterest denunciation 
on the other, is found this sentence that might well be placed 
in bronze in every court room in the country : 

"Causes, and not parties to causes, are weighed by Justice 
in her equal scales ; on the former solely her attention is fixed ; 
to the latter she is, as she is painted, blind." (Page 466.) 

He was the first professor of law in the University of Penn- 
sylvania. 

"Washington chose him as the educator of his nephew, 
Bushrod Washington, who for over thirty years was a justice 
of the United States Supreme Court. 

He was the victim of a political malice and professional 
envy, whose virulence was unsurpassed in his day. Despite the 
purity of his spotless character, the sincerity of his religion, 
the unsullied honesty of his private life and lofty public career, 
despite his great services and personal risk for his adopted 
country, his fealty to that country was questioned — a fealty 
which history records as firm and unselfish and unsullied as 
that of any patriot who staked his all for it. as pure and con- 
scientious and firm as his Scotchman's faith in the living God. 



THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 373 

"With undoubted loyalty and sincerest devotion lie dared all 
man could to found and unselfishly helped to mold into a 
permanent nationality the states to whose cause he devoted his 
life and his life's best energies. 

His brilliant and busy career at the bar brought on him 
these burdens. 

He was on one or the other side of almost every leading 
case, and his city seemed to be the hot-bed for rancorous 
jealousies and envies at the bar and in politics. His aggressive 
nature, vast learning, shrewdness and developed ability pro- 
voked the attacks of those who were unable to cope with him 
and who sought to destroy whom they could not surpass. 

His was a life of constant labor, of endless exertion. He 
was more a man of books than of men. His knowledge of 
human nature was in painful contrast with his knowledge of 
legal principles, of historic precedent, of the great fountains 
of his profession. He was a student of passionate devotion, 
thoroughly drilled in every part of the logician and rhetorician. 
Yet the plain people nevej: knew a statesman who had greater 
faith in them. The wisdom of the majority had a potent appeal 
to him. This he showed in his conduct concerning the Declara- 
tion of Independence and in his advocacy of their supremacy 
in the Constitutional Convention. 

Scant justice has been done his life and services. 

As the peoples' government grows in the hearts of men, 
as the humble break over the walls of obscure poverty and 
climb to heights of noble service to their fellows, may some 
Plutarch yet do proper honor to his memory and make his in- 
dustrioiis life a guide to the generations that are becoming 
more and more the real rulers of the government he longed and 
strove to see of the people, by the people and for the people. 

He was first married in 1772 to Miss Rachel Bird, daughter 
of "William Bird of Bucks county, Pennsylvania. By this mar- 
riage he had six children. His second marriage was to Miss 
Hanna Gray, daughter of Ellis Gray, a Boston merchant. His 
only child by this marriage died in infancy. 



374 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

He was six feet in height, erect, and his demeanor given 
somewhat of hauteur by his stooping backward. His manner 
somewhat constrained ; his nearness of sight giving him a stern- 
ness of expression. His large frame, frank blue eyes, open 
honest face, and expressive mouth, and air that only culture 
brings, made his an attractive personality in any assemblage. 

His powerful voice had splendid training and gave him un- 
wearied audiences. 

"While on his judicial circuit, he died at the house of his 
colleague, Justice Iredell, at Edenton, North Carolina, August 
25, 1798. 

From Delaware 

Richard Bassett 

Richard Bassett was born at Bohemia Manor, Cecil county, 
Maryland, in 1745, and died August 16, 1815. 

His ancestors came to England with William the Con- 
queror. 

He was adopted and classically educated by an accom- 
plished and wealthy lawyer by the name of Lawson, who made 
Bassett his heir and left him six thousand acres of "Bohemia 
Manor," one of the fairest properties in the state. Upon at- 
taining manhood he removed to Delaware. 

He was a man of sincere piety, as well as abundant means ; 
was the chief contributor toward building Wesley Chapel in 
Dover, and often filled the pulpit of his church. 

In the four corners of the audience room of a leading 
Methodist church in Philadelphia stand four handsome Corin- 
thian columns, reaching from floor to ceiling. Upon each is 
carved a bust of a representative character of early Method- 
ism. That for the "Statesman in Methodism" is the bust of 
Richard Bassett. 

Through the influence of the celebrated Bishop Francis 
Asbury he was attracted to that church and became one of 
its greatest workers among the laity. Their camp meetings 
were held upon his beautiful grounds at "Bohemia Manor," 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 375 

and his houses were the homes of its faithful ministers, seldom 
without one or more being his welcome guests. 

He maintained three spacious homes, one at Dover, one at 
Wilmington and the ancestral home at ''Bohemia ]\Ianor, " in 
all of which he indulged the generous hospitality of the wealthy 
and distinguished of the day. 

For nearly forty years the most devoted friendship united 
him and Bishop Asbury, and to their wise counsels much is due 
for the rapid progress of the church to which they gave a 
kindred devotion. 

The blessing upon his pious life verily descended to the 
third and fourth generation. His only daughter married 
James A. Bayard, long United States senator from Delaware, 
and one of the commissioners who negotiated the treaty of 
peace with England in 1814, known as the "Treaty of Ghent." 
His grandson, James A. Bayard, was United States senator 
from 1851 to 1864, and again from 1867 to 1869, in the last year 
in the senate with his son, Thomas F. Bayard, great-grandson 
of Mr. Bassett, the only time in our history when father and 
son sat in the senate together. Thomas F. Bayard was United 
States senator from 1869 to 1885, when he became secretary of 
state under President Cleveland. 

Mr, Bassett served in the old congress during the time the 
Articles of Confederation were in force ; was a member of the 
Delaware Council of Safety in 1776; captain of the Dover 
Light Horse under Washington in 1777; member of the 
Annapolis Convention and of the Delaware Constitutional Con- 
ventions of 1776 and 1792 ; United States senator from 1789 
to 1793, and was the first member to cast his vote for locating 
the capitol on the Potomac ; chief justice of the court of com- 
mon pleas from 1793 to 1799, when he became governor; 
United States circuit judge from 1801 to his death, 

Mr. Bassett was one of the substantial but not showy states- 
men, who served well in every place to which he was called, 
and lived in the lasting honor of his state and country. 



376 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Gunning Bedford, Jr. 

Gunning Bedford, Jr., was born at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1747, and died at Wilmington, Delaware, March 30, 
1812. 

The Bedford family came from England to Jamestown, Vir- 
ginia, in 1621 ; thence to Maryland, and then to Philadelphia. 
His father, an architect, was a captain in the French and In- 
dian wars, and many years an alderman in Philadelphia. 

He graduated at Princeton in 1771, the valedictorian of his 
class, of which James Madison and Hugh M. Brackenridge were 
members. 

After the usual study of the law and admission to the bar 
in 1779 he removed to Delaware and located at Wilmington, 
after a brief residence at Dover. His scholarship and ora- 
torical ability soon won him prominent position, and he was 
repeatedly a member of the Delaware legislature. In 1783 he 
was elected to the Continental Congress and served therein for 
three years. In 1784 he was appointed attorney-general of 
Delaware. In 1786 he was a delegate to the Annapolis Con- 
vention with the same men who with him were delegates to the 
Constitutional Convention. His high rank in his profession 
and as a statesman is shown by his intimate association with 
the leading men of his state, and the fact that he has often 
been confused with his cousin of the same name, without the 
junior, who was governor of Delaware. 

He was a frequent participant in the debates and one of the 
ablest advocates in the Constitutional Convention for equality 
of representation by the states in the United States senate. His 
impulsive outburst that, if the smaller states were not allowed 
equality of representation in the national congress with the 
larger states foreign nations stood ready to take them by the 
hand, created one of the most acute and profound sensations 
of the convention. It marked one of the occasions when in- 
tense feeling brought that body to the very verge of dissolu- 
tion. Yet this was no more nor less than his colleague, John 
Dickinson, saying in the same debate, he would ''sooner submit 



THE FRAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 377 

to a foreign rule than be deprived in both branches of an 
equality of suffrage and thereby be thrown under the domina- 
tion of the larger states." 

To no man more than him is due the honor his state wears 
of being the first to ratify the Constitution. 

In 1789 he was appointed by Washington the first district 
judge of the United States for the district of Delaware, a posi- 
tion he held with growing and distinguished honor until his 
death. 

Prior to his graduation from college he married Miss Jane 
Parker, daughter of James Parker, an early American printer 
and editor, who learned his trade side by side with Benjamin 
Franklin. It is an incident of historic interest that James 
Parker and Franklin exchanged the first dollar they earned as 
apprentices. The dollar Franklin earned and thus exchanged 
was made into a punch strainer, and is now among the treas- 
ured relics of the Historical Society of Delaware. It is said 
Mrs, Bedford left her baby with the wife of Dr. Witherspoon 
to hear her husband deliver his first honor oration. She was 
a woman of rare intellectual endowment and splendid culture, 
among her many accomplishments speaking French fluently. 
A woman whose conversational ability and graces of Christian 
character contributed to her husband's advancement and made 
their home the center of the most cultured society of the day. 
His daughter, Henrietta Jane Bedford, one of the most gifted 
and honored of Delaware women, died in Wilmington in 1781 
in her eighty-third year. 

In her will she provided that her father's portrait should 
be placed in the national capitol, near that of James Madison, 
his old college classmate and roommate, and it now holds an 
honored place at the head of a stairway in the senate wing 
of that building. She left to the Delaware Historical Society 
a brace of pistols given by Washington to her father when 
dispatched on a dangerous and patriotic mission. She de- 
scribes her father as an aide-de-camp to Washington. 



378 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

In the closing words of the epitaph on the monument above 
his dust : 

"Reader, may his example stimulate you to improve the 
talents — be they five or two or one — with which God has en^ 
trusted you. ' ' 

Jacob Broom 

Jacob Broom was born in Pennsylvania, October 17, 1752, 
and died at Philadelphia, April 25, 1810. 

He held many offices of trust and responsibility in Dela- 
ware, and was the intimate associate of the distinguished men 
of the day, but did not figure in our national history outside 
of his part as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. 

His address to Washington, on the latter 's visit to Dela- 
ware in 1783, was said to be unrivalled in excellence as a com- 
position. 

It is to be regretted that the record of the achievements of 
many serviceable men such as he has not been preserved, but 
his part in the Constitutional Convention alone merits perpetu- 
ating his memory. 

John Dickinson 

The ancestor of John Dickinson was one of three Quaker 
brothers who, in 1654, escaped persecution in England by emi- 
grating to Virginia. One of these, Walter, removed to Mary- 
land, purchased a large plantation and called it "Crosia- 
dore." There his great-grandson John was born November 13, 
1732. 

Samuel Dickinson, father of John, and heir of this planta- 
tion, held by the family for nearly a century, removed from 
it to a princely property near Dover, Delaware, in 1740. 

There John received his early education under William 
Killen, subsequently chief justice of Delaware ; was later classi- 
cally educated at Philadelphia, and followed this up by a three 
years' law course at the Temple, London, England, where he 
had as fellow students the afterward celebrated English 
jurists, Thurlow and Kenyon, and the poet Cowper. 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 379 

Knowing that he would inherit a large fortune, his dili- 
gence as a student was as great as if his future support de- 
pended upon his unaided, individual efforts, and in the morn- 
ing of his life his severe application laid the foundation of his 
future eminence. Then he followed the footsteps of the world's 
celebrities in law, literature and philosophy and acquired that 
style of classic expression that made the great state papers he 
wrote for his country an impregnable bulwark in defense of 
its action, and give an imperishable lustre to the ability and 
culture of its statesmanship and himself. 

In 1757 he returned to and entered upon the practice of his 
profession in Philadelphia. 

In 1760 he began his career in the Pennsylvania assembly 
as a delegate from the "Lower Counties," as Delaware was 
then called, and for many years, at intervals, was one of the 
most distinguished members of that body. His speeches in that 
assembly placed him in the first rank of American orators. 

In 1765 he was sent to and became a leader in the Stamp 
Act Congress. He was appointed to and did prepare the fa- 
mous resolutions setting forth the claims and position of the 
colonies, and was known thereafter in all of them as the man 
who in those resolutions formulated a Bill of Rights for the 
American people. 

That act of the British government had no more vigorous 
opponent, yet he believed in obedience to the law, however 
evil; the repeal, not violation of obnoxious legislation, and 
counseled the use of stamps until the act was repealed. He 
denounced the injustice of the act, but the refusal to obey 
it as revolutionary, as he did the action of the "Boston Tea 
Party," and advised that the tea destroyed should be paid 
for. The Boston Port Act he contended was unconstitutional, 
and upon that ground, as an English subject, sought its repeal. 
But relief from all these abuses and oppressions he believed 
should be sought by appealing to the justice, the reason, the 
law, the historic and judicial precedents of Great Britain, not 
by riotous violence. He wrote: 



380 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

"The cause of liberty is a cause of too much dignity to be 
sullied by turbulence and tumult. It ought to be maintained in 
a manner suitable to her nature. Those who engage in it should 
breathe a sedate yet fervent spirit, animating them to actions 
of prudence, justice, modesty, bravery, humanity and mag- 
nanimity." 

In 1774 he was made chairman of the Pennsylvania Com- 
mittee of Correspondence, and drafted the instructions to the 
delegates of Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress of that 
year, to which he was elected a delegate, and for which he 
drafted the first petition to the King and the address to the 
people of Canada. 

In the Pennsylvania Convention he was chairman of the 
Committee of Safety and Defense, and when New York was 
threatened with invasion by the British was chosen colonel of 
the first battalion and prepared to march with it to aid the 
sister colony. 

No man took higher rank in the Congresses of 1774, 1775 
and 1776. In the composition of their addresses that attracted 
world-wide applause, he took a conspicuous part. Two of these 
were especially remarkable. Of the "Petition to the King" it 
was said: 

"It will remain an imperishable monument to the glory of 
its author and of the assembly of which he was a member, so 
long as fervid and manly eloquence and chaste and elegant 
composition shall be appreciated." 

The famous address of July 5, 1775, setting forth the causes 
and necessity of taking up arms by the colonies, was read at 
the head of the several divisions of the army. Yet, the next 
year he opposed the Declaration of Independence, and, with 
Kobert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, absented him- 
self from his seat in Congress rather than vote for it. This 
occasioned Pennsylvania to elect another delegate in his stead. 

His family motto was, " To be rather than to seem, ' ' and he 
lived up to it. He refused to sit in the famous painting by 
Trumbull of the "Signing of the Declaration," giving as his 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 381 

reason, that he did not sign it, did not at the time approve it, 
and had -no share in the glory of the act of signing it. 

Though Pennsylvania had up to June, 1776, constantly in- 
structed her delegates in Congress to vote against any separa- 
tion from Great Britain, this course cost him his place in Con- 
gress. More than this. Although, immediately upon leaving 
Congress, he entered the army as a private, went to the front 
where battle was most imminent and served out his term as a 
common 'soldier, it drove him from his position as colonel of 
the first battalion of Pennsylvania Associators, a position he 
had held since 1775, and out of Pennsylvania. 

The great historian, Hildreth, says: "His course with re- 
spect to the Declaration exhibited the noblest proof of moral 
courage ever shown by a public man in the history of the coun- 
try." 

Delaware at once recognized his loyalty as well as splendid 
ability when, in November, 1776, she sent him as a delegate 
to the Congress from which as a delegate from Pennsylvania 
he retired the previous June. 

He re-entered the army as a private in the Delaware 
militia, fought through the Brandywine campaign, and was 
made a brigadier general by Governor McKean. 

In 1779 he was again elected to Congress by Delaware ; the 
next year president of the state. In 1782 he was elected presi- 
dent of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. This 
'made him ex-officio chief justice of the Supreme Court of Penn- 
sylvania. Thus at the same time he was governor of two states, 
chief justice of one, and delegate in Congress from the other. 

Delaware sent him as a delegate to Congress, despite his 
stand with regard to the Declaration of Independence. The 
leaders and the people had confidence in his honesty, his moral 
earnestness and absolute independence, and these high quali- 
ties, universally esteemed, gave him his great influence. They 
knew he opposed declaring independence at the time, not from 
lack of loyalty, but conscientious conviction as to its then 
expediency. 



382 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

It will be remembered that, with the exception of Samuel 
Adams and two or three others', all of these historic characters 
sought, not separation from, but justice as citizens of the 
mother country. 

Washington, Franklin and the great majority of leaders and 
of the people, up to the early part of 1776, did not favor inde- 
pendence. That Declaration could not have possibly met with 
a favorable vote in the Congress of 1774 or 1775. By the nar- 
rowest margin was it decided upon in July, 1776. 

He well saw the colonial conditions; poor, disunited, and 
without an ally on earth preparing to grapple with a power 
second to none, whose united forces would be hurled as an 
organized unit against us, and whose influence with kindred 
monarchical governments might induce a refusal of help to a 
promised republic. "With forceful logic and abundant reason 
he contended that : First, we should form a united government ; 
give it the ample powers of a supreme authority ; vest in it the 
whole of the public lands, and give it the foundation of re- 
sources for the common cause, and power to raise the means for 
the common public necessities; form needed alliances; and, 
when prepared to present a united, unbroken front, backed up 
by friendly powers that would supply the needs our poverty 
demanded, take our stand as an independent people, unless re- 
turning justice and better knowledge of our people's needs 
induced Great Britain to heed her Pitts and Burkes, and accord 
us our demanded rights. 

Not from lack of patriotic devotion, but for his belief that 
we lacked preparedness to sustain it, he voted against the 
Declaration, and left the Congress. A firm believer in the rule 
of the majority, when it was passed he stood with his country- 
men, and staked his life, his fortune and his sacred honor with 
theirs as loyally, as patriotically and as devotedly as did the 
most ardent advocates of the measure. 

During his congressional career, from 1775 to 1776, he 
served upon many of the most important committees; took a 
leading part in the discussion of every important measure ; and 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 333 

was universally esteemed as one of the ablest members of the 
Congress. When returned to it in 1779 he bore with him Dela- 
ware 's adoption of the Articles of Confederation, and in May 
of that year wrote the address to the states upon the situation 
of public affairs. When elected president of the Council of 
Delaware in 1880 he resigned from Congress. 

Distinguished as were his services in the Continental Con- 
gress, and in the Constitutional Convention, brilliant as were 
his delivered and written addresses in and for that body, his 
fame will always chiefly rest on his published letters from 
1765 to the close of the conflict in 1783. 

The most famous of these were "A Farmer's Letters to the 
Inhabitants of the British Colonies," published in 1767. His 
aim in them was to arouse the attention of his countrymen to 
the illegality of British taxation, and to the necessity of 
vigorous measures to induce that government to repeal these 
illegal and oppressive measures. Though his bitter personal 
enemy, Benjamin Franklin had these "Farmer's" letters pub- 
lished, presented a copy to the King, and gave them wide cir- 
culation in England, stating that they were the strongest argu- 
ments ever made for the rights of the colonies. 

They gave him the name of "The Penman of the American 
Revolution." 

Said Professor Tyler, "No other letters equaled the 
'Farmer's' in literary merit, including in that term the merit 
of substance as well as of form ; in immediate celebrity, and in 
direct power upon events," 

The historian. Ford: "They made him as preeminent as 
Washington in war, Franklin in diplomacy, and Morris in 
finance." 

The writings of no other man so clearly presented the con- 
tention of the colonies, so helped to crystallize public sentiment, 
or, in the words of America 's great historian, George Bancroft, 
"So controlled the destinies of the country." 

These famous letters were not to stimulate insurrection, but 
to ward off war and revolution ; were not even suggestive of in- 



384 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

dependence, but to substantiate and clearly set forth the rights 
of the colonies ; not appeals to armed resistance, but to the in- 
telligent judgment of the American people, and to British con- 
science — to obtain voluntary concessions by the British govern- 
ment to loyal British subjects, if not British citizens. 

In 1768 he wrote one of the most popular poems of the time, 
entitled "The Liberty Song." 

He and Franklin were generally on opposite sides of public 
questions. Their hostility began when he opposed the change 
of government in Pennsylvania from proprietary to royal. . He 
favored the former ; had, as it was, feared the latter as a greater 
evil, and bitterly fought it. He was on the unpopular side and 
lost, but his view of what it would bring was prophetic. 

His career was somewhat paradoxical. His hereditary 
Quaker instincts showed in his constant mode of address — the 
use of the word thy in his address and correspondence ; his 
conservative position ; his love of peace and peaceful methods 
in public affairs. Yet he held, "If, at length, it becomes un- 
doubted that an inveterate resolution is formed to annihilate 
the liberties of the governed, English history affords frequent 
examples of resistance, by force," and his American training 
and environment made him an armed opponent, as it made his 
ancestors at Runnymede and on other English fields. 

So, too, he would battle for his rights as an English citizen 
rather than an independent American. 

So, too, while opposing separation from Great Britain he 
was made chairman of the committee to prepare the Articles of 
Confederation, and when he returned to Congress in the fall of 
1776 wrote the draft of those articles, which, in his own hand- 
writing, is yet preserved, and was in that Congress years after- 
ward when their adoption was secured. 

So, too, he was a man of wealth, of wealthy and aristocratic 
descent, yet no man of his time was more democratic in life, in 
sentiment and in the advocacy of measures for the people. Like 
Abou Ben Adhem, he loved his fellow men. When it v/as pro- 
posed that the Constitution should require a property qualifica- 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 335 

tion for President and members of Congress, though one of the 
wealthiest men in it, he said he doubted the policy of inter- 
weaving into a republican constitution a veneration for wealth. 
A veneration for poverty and virtue were the objects of repub- 
lican encouragement. It was improper that any man of merit 
should be subjected to disabilities in a republic where merit 
was understood to form the great title to public trusts, honors 
and rewards. 

He advocated the abolition of slavery in Delaware, though 
he was and his fathers had been slave holders, and opposed its 
admission into the ''Northwest Territory." 

He was president of the Annapolis Convention, and took a 
leading part in bringing about the Constitutional Convention. 
In the latter his knowledge of men all over the country and 
experience in public affairs, as well as cultured ability, made 
him one of its most useful members. In it he advocated the 
limitation of the powers of the President ; presidential electors 
to be chosen by the people, not by the state legislatures; a 
council of men from different geographical sections who should 
assist the President and with him exercise the power to appoint 
public officers ; and above all the equality of representation of 
each state in the United States Senate, urging state sovereignty 
as the guarantee of the stability of the Federal government. 
It was upon his motion that two senators from each state was 
fixed upon ; and he drafted that part of Article IV, Section 
111, whereby no state should be ''formed by the junction of 
two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of 
the states concerned as well as of the Congress." 

After the convention, in a series of essays in support of 
ratifying the Constitution, he did a most needed and efficient 
service. Many, like him, believed in state sovereignty. Such 
generally feared the centralization of a strong national gov- 
ernment under the Constitution. With these his arguments and 
personal character carried great weight. "Without their aid it 
is doubtful if Pennsylvania would have ratified the Constitu- 
tion. 



386 "THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

"When war was threatened with France he again contributed 
letters to the public to restore a friendly feeling. 

In after politics he was anti-federalist, and was urged to 
permit his election to the United States Senate from Delaware, 
but declined the honor. Jefferson and his states' rights theories 
had no abler, sincerer advocate than him. 

His private and domestic life was as full of moral virtues. 
Christian sincerity and home-loving tenderness as his public 
life of unblemished honor. In 1770 he married Miss Mary Nor- 
ris, only daughter of Isaac Norris, of Fair Hill, Philadelphia. 
His wife was an accomplished woman and no less devoted than 
he to measures for public good. She aided him in founding the 
Society for the Alleviation of the Miseries of Public Prisons, a 
free boarding school at Westtown, Pennsylvania, and many 
other philanthropies. 

His library was one of the largest and best selected in the 
country, and he loved the quiet seclusion of his study. This 
he sought and remained in after he retired from the presidency 
of Pennsylvania, to which he was twice reelected, and made his 
permanent home at Wilmington, Delaware. 

"While president of Pennsylvania he became one of the 
founders of the college which the assembly gave his name, ''In 
memory of the great and important services rendered to his 
country by his excellency, John Dickinson," This college he 
endowed with five hundred acres of land and a library of 
fifteen hundred volumes. 

After removing to Delaware, though often solicited to per- 
mit his election to the United States Senate and other positions 
of honor, he declined all public places. 

Says a distinguished writer of his state : 

"In a life of such manifold and varied activities, it is diffi- 
cult to determine which of its policies and achievements are 
most characteristic and important. In his career there were 
two periods when his most important work was done. 

"To the successful prosecution of the war of independence 
the power of the pen was almost as essential as that of the 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 387 

sword. To arouse and sustain a spirit of resistance, to give to 
the proclamations, addresses and resolutions of Congress a tone 
becoming the dignity of that body, and the destiny of the coun- 
try, and to command the respect and secure the support of the 
enlightened in Europe, required genius and cultivation of the 
highest order and the most commanding influence. In this de- 
partment of the patriotic contest none surpassed him. 

''With his pen and voice he was the champion of constitu- 
tional resistance, tapping all the abundant resources of his wide 
learning, experience and splendid intellect to inculcate into the 
colonists those immortal principles of constitutional liberty and 
civil freedom that made possible the Constitution of the United 
States. This was his pre-revolutionary work. 'For who are a 
free people?' he asks. 'Not those over whom government is 
reasonably and equitably exercised, but those who live under a 
government so constitutionally checked and controlled that 
proper provision is made against its being otherwise exercised.' 

"Has there ever been a clearer definition of constitutional 
rule ? 

"His contentions were maintained with such unanswerable 
logical skill and nice discrimination, and his arguments set 
down in such a matchless classical style as to attract the atten- 
tion and win the support of many of the foremost men of 
Europe." 

Voltaire pronounced him the equal of Cicero. 

His second was in the Constitutional Convention, for which 
his previous career so well prepared him. 

His conduct with regard to the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, as well as all of his public acts, is best explained in his 
own words in Congress in 1779 : 

"Two rules I have laid down for myself throughout this 
contest, to which I have constantly adhered, and still design to 
adhere — first, on all occasions where I am called upon as a 
trustee for my countrymen, to deliberate on questions import- 
ant to their happiness, disdaining all personal advantages to 
be derived from a suppression of my real sentiments, and defy- 



388 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

ing all dangers to be risked by a declaration of them, openly 
to avow them, and secondly, after thus discharging this duty, 
whenever the public resolutions are taken, to regard them, 
though opposite to my opinion, as sacred, because they lead to 
public measures in which the common weal must be interested, 
and to join in supporting them as earnestly as if my voice had 
been given for them. If the present day is too warm for me to 
be calmly judged, I can credit my country for justice some 
years hence." 

His mother, Mary Cadwalader, was a woman of rare grace 
of head and heart, and reared her son in an atmosphere of re- 
ligious duty. He was devoted to her and her memory. No 
more beautiful tribute to his life exists than his own filial let- 
ters to that faithful mother. 

His charities and philanthropies were numerous. Upon the 
death of the distinguished George Read he gave his widow a 
valuable farm in Delaware that enabled her to pass her life 
in comfort and educate her children. 

Full of years and honors, he died February 14, 1808. Con- 
gress passed resolutions on his death as a national calamity, 
and Jefferson wrote on hearing of it : 

"A more estimable man or truer patriot could not have left 
us. Among the first of the advocates for the rights of his coun- 
try when assailed by Great Britain, he continued to the last 
the orthodox advocate of the true principles of our new gov- 
ernment, and his name will be consecrated in history as one of 
the great worthies of the Revolution." 

A son of Chief Justice Read, of Delaware, thus described 
his personal appearance: 

"I have a vivid impression of the man, tall and spare, his 
hair white as snow, his face uniting with the severe simplicity 
of his sect a neatness and elegance peculiarly in keeping with 
it; his manners a beautiful emanation of the great Christian 
principle of love, with that gentleness and affectionateness 
which, whatever may be the cause, the friends, or at least in- 
dividuals among them, exhibit more than others, combining the 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION' 339 

politeness of a man of the world familiar with society in its 
most polished forms with conventional canons of behavior. 
Truly he lives in my memory as the realization of my beau- 
ideal of a gentleman." 

George Read 

George Read was one of Ireland 's contributions to our coun- 
try. His father, John Eead, a wealthy citizen of Dublin, emi- 
grated to Cecil county, Maryland, where he became a planter 
and where this son was born September 17, 1733, soon there- 
after removing to the province of Delaware. 

George Read received a classical education at New London, 
Pennsylvania. Among his fellow pupils, whom he afterwards 
met in the Continental Congress, were Charles Thompson, its 
secretary from beginning to end ; Hugh Williamson, from North 
Carolina, and Dr. Ewing Provost, of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, an eminent mathematician and astronomer. 

He studied law under John Moland, a Philadelphia lawyer 
of repute, and displayed such ability that he was intrusted with 
much of his preceptor's business. He was admitted to the bar 
at the early age of nineteen. Though entitled by the laws of the 
province to two shares of his father's property, his first act on 
reaching his majority was to relinquish it by deed to his 
brothers, claiming that he had received his share of his patri- 
mony in his education. 

He settled in Newcastle and had as professional com- 
petitors such distinguished men as John Ross, then attorney 
general; Benjamin Chew, George Ross, John Dickinson and 
Thomas McKean, with whom he soon took an equal rank. 

In 1763 he succeeded Ross as attorney general, which office 
he held until elected to the Continental Congress in 1775. 

While attorney general — and he held this office under Brit- 
ish rule and as a British official — he wrote a letter to the gov- 
ernor of the Bank of England, predicting that England's taxa- 
tion of the colonies without representation, and her arbitrary 
exactions would lead to independence, and would result in a 



390 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

nation that would rival the mother country. The letter made 
a profound impression in England. He was for twelve years 
a member of the Delaware legislature, and while a member 
wrote a letter to the King that Lord Shelburne said his majesty 
read over and over again, and was more impressed by than any 
writing of the period. He opposed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, but signed that immortal document when it was 
passed by the Congress, and was one of the only three men 
who signed the original petition to the King for redress of 
grievances, the Declaration of Independence, which he voted 
against making, and the Constitution. He was one of the naval 
commissioners of the Congress. He represented Delaware in 
the Continental Congress during the whole Revolutionary war, 
excepting a short interval during the capture of President 
McKinley of that state when he acted as its president. In 1775, 
refusing a commission, he served in the ranks of the militia. 
"When told that he had signed the Declaration with a halter 
about his neck, Mr. Read replied that it was a measure de- 
manded by the crisis, and he was prepared to meet any conse- 
quences that might result. 

In 1776 he was president of the convention which framed 
the first Constitution of Delaware. 

In 1782 he was appointed by Congress one of the judges of 
the Court of Appeals in admiralty cases, which office he filled 
until the abolition of the court, and in 1785 was one of the 
commissioners constituting a Federal court to determine the 
controversy between New York and Massachusetts in relation 
to territory. In 1786 he was one of the delegates of Delaware, 
to the Annapolis Convention, and in 1787 sent by his state to 
the Constitutional Convention. He was elected one of the first 
United States senators from Delaware, resigning that office to 
become chief justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware, which 
distinguished position he held until his death at Newcastle, 
September 21, 1798. 

In the Constitutional Convention he was one of the leading 
advocates for equality of representation by all the states in the 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 39I 

Congress of the United States, and was influential in securing 
that clause in the Constitution which gives them equal repre- 
sentation in the Senate. 

He aided in giving his state the honor of being the first to 
adopt the Constitution of the United States, and was noted 
not only for his ability as a jurist, but the purity of his private 
life. 

In 1763 he married the daughter of George Ross, pastor for 
fifty years of Immanuel Church, Newcastle. Her father had 
given her a culture much beyond that enjoyed by the women 
of the period, and she displayed the intrepid spirit of the revo- 
lutionary mother and wife. Says the leading biographer of 
the times: "During the revolutionary struggle her trials were 
many and severe. The enemy, constantly on the borders of 
Delaware, kept the state in perpetual alarm by predatory in- 
cursions ; and at different periods occupied or marched through 
it. Frequent change of habitation was not one of the least 
evils which accompanied the war of the revolution. Mrs. Read 
was almost always separated from her husband, who was un- 
remittingly engaged in the public service. She was often com- 
pelled to fly from her abode, at a moment's warning, with a 
large and infant family. But she never was dejected ; instead 
of increasing the heavy burdens of a statesman's care by her 
complaints, she animated his fortitude by her firmness." 

The mothers clasped hands with the fathers in teaching les- 
sons of heroism to the generations that will hold them in death- 
less honor. 

From Maryland 

Daniel Carroll 

Daniel Carroll, member of the famous family of Maryland 

Carrolls, was born in Prince George county, Maryland, in 1756, 

and died at "Washington City, in 1829. 

y — After receiving a classical education, he settled upon his 

>^^^^^wdrltemffl-" estate, now part of the city of Washington, and 

— ^ed the life of the affluent and cultured colonial planter. 



392 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

He was a member of the Continental Congress from 1781 to 
1784, and presented to that Congress the act of Maryland 
ratifying the Articles of Confederation; and was a member of 
the lower house of the United States Congress from 1789 to 
1891, the latter year being appointed commissioner to survey 
the District of Columbia. 

Daniel of St. Thomas, Jenifer 

Daniel of St. Thomas, Jenifer, was born in Maryland, about 
the year 1723, and died in that state November 6, 1790. 

He was liberally educated and active in public affairs in 
Maryland before the revolution. In 1776 he became president 
of that state's committee of safety, and was sent to the Con- 
tinental Congress in 1779. In 1782 he was a candidate for gov- 
ernor. In 1785 he represented Maryland as special commis- 
sioner to settle, with the commissioners from Virginia, the juris- 
diction of those two states over that part of Chesapeake Bay, 
which was claimed by both states. At his solicitation they met 
with Washington at Mt. Vernon and did settle that long vexed 
question with happy unanimity. 

He closed his honorable public career with his services in 
the Constitutional Convention. 

Luther Martin 

Luther Martin was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 
February 9, 1748, and died at the house of Aaron Burr in New 
York City, July 10, 1826. 

He graduated at Princeton in 1776 ; studied law while sup- 
porting himself by teaching; began its practice in Virginia, but 
returned to Maryland, where he attained the highest eminence 
in his profession, becoming attorney general in 1778. 

In 1784-5 he was a member of the Continental Congress. 

He bitterly opposed the Constitution; left the convention 
rather than sign it, and fought its adoption by Maryland to 
the last, yet a few years after his vehement support of that 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 393 

Constitution prompted Thomas Jefferson to name him ''The 
Federal bulldog." 

He left valuable notes of the debates in and proceedings of 
the convention. 

No man more earnestly, even savagely, denounced the 
African slave trade, or labored more zealously for the general 
emancipation of the slaves. 

He appeared as leading counsel in the successful defense in 
two of the most celebrated trials in American history — the at- 
tempted impeachment of Judge Chase in 1804, and of Aaron 
Burr for treason in 1807. His defense of Burr cost him the 
good will of many of his countrymen, but he stood by Burr to 
the end of his life, and died at Burr's home. 

He was a man of most positive convictions, and always 
vehement and abusively aggressive in support of whatever 
cause he espoused and toward those who opposed that cause. 

In 1805, after twenty-seven years' service as attorney gen- 
eral, he resigned, and in 1814 was appointed chief justice of 
the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Baltimore. This court was 
abolished in 1816, and in 1818 he was again appointed attorney 
general of Maryland. In 1820 a stroke of paralysis left him a 
helpless invalid for the rest of his life, and dependent upon 
the charity of friends. In 1820 the Maryland legislature passed 
an act — the only one of its kind in American history — requir- 
ing every Maryland lawyer to pay an annual license fee of five 
dollars, the proceeds to be paid to trustees "for the use of 
Luther Martin." 

He was a boisterous, erratic and dissipated man, but one of 
the greatest lawyers this country has ever produced. 

James McHenry 

James McHenry was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, 
Ireland, November 16, 1753, and died in Baltimore, Maryland, 
May 3, 1816. 

He was partially educated in Dublin, came to America in 
1771 to restore his shattered health, and was so charmed with 



394 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

the country that he induced his father and brother to come 
over. They located in business in Baltimore, and he completed 
his education at Newark and studied medicine under the cele- 
brated Dr. Benjamin Rush at Philadelphia. 

He joined the Continental Army under Washington in 1776 
as assistant surgeon, and was soon after appointed medical 
director of the army by Congress. At the capture of Ft. Wash- 
ington, New York, in November, 1776, he was made prisoner, 
and was not exchanged until March 5, 1778. In May following 
Washington appointed him his secretary, and for the rest of 
their lives the most cordial intimacy existed between them. 
In 1780 he became a member of the staff of General LaFayette 
and so served until the close of the war. He was with LaFayette 
when Arnold.'s treason was discovered, and made Washington 's 
apologies to Mrs. Arnold for delaying breakfast on the memora- 
ble morning of September 24, 1780, when Arnold was in his 
mad flight to reach the British. 

From 1781 to 1786 he was a member of the Maryland Sen- 
ate; from 1783 to 1786 a member of the Continental Congress; 
from 1788 to 1791 a member of the Maryland house of dele- 
gates ; again a member of its Senate from 1791 to 1796 ; in 1788 
a member of the Maryland convention that ratified the Consti- 
tution ; in 1796 appointed by Washington secretary of war, 
holding that position until 1801, during the balance of Wash- 
ington's and all of Adams' administration. 

He established the United States Military Academy at West 
Point, and did much to place our country in readiness for war 
in 1798 by building ships, forts, arsenals and armories. Fort 
McHenry, commanding Baltimore harbor, was named in his 
honor. 

He married Margaret, daughter of David Caldwell, of 
Philadelphia. 

He was a man of sincere piety, president of the Maryland 
Bible Society in 1813, and was the author of a book entitled 
''The Three Patriots" — Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. 



THE FKAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 395 

John Francis Mercer 

John Francis Mercer was born at Marlboro, Stafford county, 
Virginia, May 17, 1759, and died at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
August 30, 1821. 

He was of Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfather came to 
Virginia in 1720, was a crown lawyer of celebrity, the author of 
"Mercer's Abridgement" of the laws of Virginia, and the first 
argument published in Virginia against the Stamp Act. 

He graduated at William and Mary College in 1775 ; in 1776 
entered the Continental Army as lieutenant; was wounded at 
the battle of Brandywine ; was aide to Gen. Charles Lee at 
Monmouth ; so warmly took the part of that officer that he re- 
signed from the army on account of the treatment of Lee ; after- 
ward served as lieutenant colonel of a troop of horse, which 
he equipped at his own expense, and with which he joined Gen. 
Robert Lawson's brigade in North Carolina; and closed his 
military career under LaFayette at Yorktown. 

From the army he went to the law office of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, under him prepared for his profession, and continued for 
life one of Jefferson's most ardent admirers and trusted, con- 
fidential friends. 

From 1782 to 1785 he was a delegate from Virginia to the 
Continental Congress. 

Removing to Maryland in 1786, he took a prominent part 
in the public affairs of that state, and was sent by it to the 
Constitutional Convention. 

He strenuously opposed the Constitution as centralizing 
power to the sacrifice of states' rights, and left the convention, 
as did Yates, Lansing and Luther Martin, rather than sign it. 

Thereafter he served repeatedly in the Maryland legis- 
lature, and from 1792 to 1794 was a member of the lower house 
of the United States Congress, in which he was among the 
opponents of the administration. 

In 1801 he was elected governor of Maryland, and was one 
of the most powerful allies of Thomas Jefferson, outside of 
Congress, in his great contest for president against Aaron Burr. 



p 



396 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEBS 

During his term as governor the chief administration meas- 
ure was the repeal of the law requiring a property qualification 
for the voter, in which he succeeded. 

After retiring from the governorship he again entered the 
legislature, and drew up the petition asking Congress to pre- 
vent a declaration of war in 1812. 

He married Miss Sophia Sprigg, member of a prominent 
Maryland family, and a woman of rare graces of person and 
mind. Their children inherited their high intellectual and 
moral character. One daughter, Margaret, was the authoress 
of "Studies for Bible Classes," "Ethics," and "A Series of 
Lectures for Young Ladies." She was called the "Hannah 
More of America," on account of freeing her own slaves and 
sending them to Liberia, and her labors in behalf of their gen- 
eral emancipation. 

For more than ten years she conducted at Cedar Park, her 
ancestral home, one of the leading schools for girls of her day, 
and was among the foremost of American educators and philan- 
thropists of her time. 

From Virginia 
John Blair 

John Blair was born at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1732, 
and there died August 31, 1800. 

He was of Scotch descent, and of a family as noted for 
strong common sense and native ability as for their love of 
culture. 

His granduncle, James Blair, was a Scotch minister of 
celebrity who came to Virginia in 1685 ; was at the head of the 
church, and prominent in the civil affairs of the state; an 
ardent friend of education ; an able author, and the man who, 
on February 14, 1692, secured from the King and Queen of 
England the charter of the famous institution named in their 
honor — "William and Mary College. 

His father, John Blair, was an eminent statesman of Vir- 
tiinia. 



THE FRAMEES OF THE COJNSTITUTION 397 

He graduated at William and Mary College, was prepared 
for the bar at the Temple, London, and soon after his return 
to Virginia, achieved the highest distinction as a lawyer. 

In 1765 he entered the Virginia legislature, and was one 
of those who assembled at the Raleigh tavern on the dissolu- 
tion of the House of Burgesses by the royalist governor, and 
drew up the non-importation agreement. 

In 1776 he was one of the committee that drew up the plan, 
in point of fact the constitution, for governing the newly 
formed state. He was at once chosen to the state council, and 
in 1777 made a judge of the Court of Appeals. He rose to be 
chief justice, and in 1780 was elevated to the position of judge 
of the High Court of Chancery. 

He, Washington, Madison and Wythe, unlike their other 
Virginia colleagues in the convention, ardently supported the 
Constitution in that great convention, as well as its ratification 
by their state. 

In 1789 Washington appointed him one of the first justices 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, a position he filled 
with great distinction until he resigned in 1796. 

He was noted for his wide reading, his extensive culture, his 
intensely studious habits from boyhood to the close of his noted 
and useful life. That life was less that of the politician, in the 
best sense of that abused word, great as was his part in Vir- 
ginia legislation, than the quiet life of the jurist. His liberal 
education, his varied experience as a lawyer, his long career as 
a judge, his recognized and honored sound judgment peculiarly 
fitted him for the place he filled as a framer of the Constitution. 

James Madison 

James Madison was born at Port Conway, Virginia, March , 
16, 1751, and died at Montpelier, Virginia, June 28, 1836. 

His father, for whom he was named, was the owner of more 
land in Orange county than any other man. His mother, 
Eleanor Conway, was of a family equally prominent, and for 
whom his birthplace was named. The founders of both families 



398 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

r 

were early pioneers. "^"When he was an infant his father re- 
moved to Montpelier, where he passed his after life. / 

He graduated at Princeton in 1771, and prepared for the 
law under George Wythe, but his whole life may be said to 
have been devoted to matters of state. 

He was a delicate youth, and his early portraits give him a 
feeble, if not effeminate appearance. His long life of laborious 
mental effort is a lasting lesson of the value of taking care of 
one's health. Though one of the most enthusiastic supporters 
of his country's contentions, his physical condition kept him 
out of its army, and turned his marvelous abilities into another 
most useful channel. 

In 1776 he commenced his long public career in the Virginia 
Convention, and was one of the committee to present to that 
convention the Declaration of Rights drawn up by George 
Mason. His course toward the last clause of that Declaration 
shows his far-sighted comprehension of the significance of lan- 
guage, as well as the catholicity of his love of liberty. It read : 

"All men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise 
of religion." That word "toleration" he objected to, and 
moved to amend the clause so as to read : 

"All men are equally entitled to the full and free exercise 
of their religion, according to the dictates of conscience." 

His contention being that freedom of religion was not a mat- 
ter of toleration, but of right. In 1786, when it was proposed 
to levy taxes in Virginia to support teachers of the Christian 
religion, it was his efforts alone that defeated it. And it was he 
who, in 1795, revived and gave lasting life to Thomas Jeffer- 
son's neglected effort of 1779 in the Virginia code, by a "Bill 
to Establish Religious Freedom in Virginia," the enactment of 
which he secured. 

From 1778 to 1780 he was a member of the Virginia Council 
of State ; in March, 1780, entering the Continental Congress, of 
which he continued a member for three years, returning to it 
again in 1787. His congressional career was, like that in every 
body he was ever a member of, marked by an ability and in- 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 399 

dustry honored by all, but especially distinguished by his 
efforts for the commerce of the country. That was an especial 
feature of his political life. 

John Jay was our country 's minister to Spain in 1780, when 
Madison drew up and induced the Congress to pass the reso- 
lutions instructing Jay to insist upon one condition of the 
treaty of alliance against England being the free navigation of 
the Mississippi river from source to Gulf. Here began that 
conflict with the conduct or policies of Jay that closed in the 
war of 1812 under Madison's administration. In 1786 Jay 
had left the Spanish mission, and was made by Congress sec- 
retary for foreign affairs. One part of the treaty he then 
proposed was to close the navigation of the Mississippi to 
Americans for twenty-five years. Madison was then out of 
Congress, but a member of the Virginia assembly. He prepared 
a strenuous protest against this feature of the treaty, which 
that assembly unanimously adopted. To defeat the treaty he 
reentered Congress in 1787, consummated his purpose by a 
small majority vote against the treaty, and had the satisfac- 
tion, while in the Congress of the United States in 1795, of see- 
ing a treaty made that gave the free commerce of that river, 
for which he had fought for so many years. Nor did this close 
his interest in and connection with that great artery of trade. 
By a secret treaty in 1800 Spain sold to France her ''Louisiana 
territory" — that vast territory mentioned in the sketch of 
Thomas Jefferson. This was undisclosed until Madison became 
secretary of state in 1801. Here was a new danger to that 
river's commerce, and from a greater power than Spain. He 
at once conferred with Jefferson and wrote R. R. Livingston, 
American minister to France, to learn whether France would 
sell her newly acquired territory. The next year, there being 
some question as to the terms of the sale to France, Spain 
closed the Mississippi to American trade. This was about to 
involve our country in war with one or the other nation, when 
Napoleon's need of money in his wars induced him to sell the 
whole territory to the United States, and jts purchase forever 



400 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PEAMEES 

crowned with success Madison's efforts for twenty years to 
make the Mississippi free to American commerce. 

The history of this long struggle throws a flood of light 
upon the part of the people of the West continuing to honor 
"William Blount, of Tennessee, despite his expulsion from the 
Senate, for his efforts to wrest the grip of Spain from this 
natural highway for their trade. They felt that he was a 
martyr for the best interests of that whole region. 

No man played so prominent a part in the events leading 
up to the Constitutional Convention as Madison, and to favor 
commerce was the keynote of every step. 

No more ardent, intelligent, far-sighted and constant 
student of governmental problems ever lived than he. They 
were his lifelong passion. He foresaw not only the danger 
ahead, even then imminent, of civil war between states, un- 
bound by a superior central authority, but of the need for con- 
cert of action to secure commercial harmony and business 
prosperity. Our internal commerce was feeble on account of 
dirt roads and undredged rivers, and water was the only 
method seen or foreseen for the enlarged commerce just dawn- 
ing, but of proportions yet undreamed of. The states sepa- 
rated by and bordering upon navigable streams, more and more 
frequently encountered conflicts as this commerce grew. Madi- 
son saw and seized upon the opportunity. In 1784 he got Jef- 
ferson to confer with the Maryland delegates in Congress as 
to adopting common regulations for commerce on the Potomac, 
and then those of Pennsylvania for that over Chesapeake Bay 
concerning all three states. The meeting at Alexandria and 
Mt. Vernon in March, 1785, of representatives from Virginia 
and Maryland was secured. Every man saw the urgency and 
policy of some uniform and common regulations for commerce 
over these waters, both to avert trouble and increase business. 
For be it not forgotten each state still had its tariff against its 
sister states. If these states could be so benefited, they saw 
others could. The Maryland legislature in the following No- 
vember recommended that Pennsylvania and Delaware be in- 



THE FRAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 401 

vited to join in considering the matter. On the last day of 
the session of the Virginia legislature — January 21, 1786 — 
Madison quietly put through a resolution enlarging the Mary- 
land proposition, and inviting all the states to send delegates 
to Annapolis to consider how a uniform system of commercial 
regulations throughout the country could be effected. That 
led to the Annapolis, and it to the Constitutional Convention, 
as heretofore told. In that convention, brought about so 
largely by Madison 's individual efforts, he was a leading spirit, 
and despite his diffidence addressed it more frequently than 
any other members, save James Wilson and Gouverneur Mor- 
ris. His profound study of constitutional questions, his years 
of preparation for just such great work, known of by all the 
delegates, forced him to participation so often in these debates, 
and placed him upon the leading committees of that conven- 
tion. 

When its labors were concluded, his labors were but just 
begun. He united with Hamilton and Jay in writing the Fed- 
eralist, and took a leading, if not the leading part in the Vir- 
ginia Convention that passed upon its ratification. His efforts 
there were the ablest of his life. Patrick Henry, whose mere 
name was a tower of strength, supported by George Mason, 
Richard Henry Lee, who made the motion for the Declaration 
of Independence, Benjamin Harrison and James Monroe, com- 
bined all their earnest ingenuity and subtle argument to defeat 
ratification. Madison, supported by George Wythe, John 
Marshall, the subsequent great chief justice, and Edmund Ran- 
dolph, were the debaters favoring ratification. George Wash- 
ington was not a member of this convention, but the great moral 
influence of his support was a bulwark to help. The ratifica- 
tion was carried. The bitter fight aroused antagonisms that 
defeated Madison for United States Senator, but the record 
that he made was a large part of the splendid record that 
raised him to the Presidency in 1809. 

From 1789 to 1797 — during the whole of Washington's ad- 
ministration — he was a member of the lower house of the 



402 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMERS 

United States Congress, and a mild opponent of the administra^ 
tion. One of his first acts was to move the adoption of seven- 
teen amendments to the constitution. The Senate cut these 
down to twelve, and of these ten were ratified by the states. 

The next four years after he left Congress were devoted to 
the local affairs of Virginia. 

In 1801 Jefferson appointed him secretary of state. He 
held that office during the eight years Jefferson was President, 
and the next eight years himself filled that great office — our 
fourth President. 

It was under Washington's confidential advice that in 1784 
he sought a seat in the Virginia legislature for the sole pur- 
pose of creating a sentiment that would induce that legislature 
to initiate the action which finally resulted in forming the con- 
stitution. No one in the convention took a more prominent or 
laborious part in its framing. He was the leader of the men 
who secured its ratification by Virginia. His part in the Fed- 
eralist greatly helped to secure its ratification by the other 
states, especially by New York. His early and constant efforts 
from the first adroit move to the final consummation have given 
him the name, grander than that of President of the United 
States — "The Father of the Constitution." Nor is it unde- 
served. Still further is the Nation indebted to him in connec- 
tion with its Constitution. The only record containing any- 
thing like a report of the debates and proceedings of that 
great convention was preserved by him, willed by him to the 
United States Congress, and by its order published in 1840, 
after his death closed the career of the last survivor of that 
forever-to-be-honored body. 

Madison, as has every American of that day and since, 
revered Washington, but he had long been the intimate per- 
sonal friend and almost companion of Jefferson. When party 
alignment began early in Washington's administration, he fol- 
lowed Jefferson in the strict construction of the Constitution 
against the powers claimed by the national government, and 
held that as the states had ratified the Constitution with the 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 403 

understanding that many of their powers were reserved to 
them, their rights should be preserved. 

He was universally esteemed the ablest and most dis- 
tinguished man in Congress. While differing with Hamilton on 
some of his financial propositions, he opposed the issue of paper 
money, and favored taxing imports for revenue purposes. 

In 1794 Washington offered him the position of minister to 
France, and soon after secretary of state, both of which he 
declined. Many in his party urged him to stand for President 
in 1796, but he refused and sought their support for Thomas 
Jefferson. 

From 1797 to- 1801 he retired to Montpelier, in 1799 accept- 
ing a seat in the Virginia legislature. He was the author of 
the "Resolutions of 1789," condenming the alien and sedition 
laws, and of the report on the resolutions of 1798, wherein 
state sovereignty was supported to the utmost limit, aside from 
the events of the Civil War. 

The persistent search of American vessels and impressment 
of American sailors had for years aroused the resentment of 
the country. Great Britain refused to modify her orders in 
council, or by treaty agree to cease these practices, and on 
June 18, 1812, war was declared by the United States. This 
war was bitterly opposed by many of our people, especially in 
New England. In this war John Paul Jones won his lasting 
fame at sea, and William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson, 
on land laid the foundations of the fame that thereafter made 
both Presidents of the United States. But he was not a man 
for war, and but little if any credit was gained by him in that 
conflict. 

On retiring from the presidency, he succeeded Thomas Jef- 
ferson as rector of the University of Virginia, and also served 
as visitor of the College of William and Mary. 

He was chosen a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional 
Convention of 1829, but was too feeble to take an active part 
in it. 

During this closing nineteen years of his life his ever active 



404 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

mind found employment in compiling his "Report of the De- 
bates in the Federal Convention of 1787," a work of inestima- 
ble historic value, and other literary efforts. 

In his book entitled "Advice to My Country," he says: 
"With regard to the responsibility of our country to man- 
kind, let it be remembered that it has ever been the pride and 
boast of America that the rights for which she contended were 
the rights of human nature. By the blessing of the Author of 
these rights on the means exerted for their defense, they have 
prevailed over all opposition. * * * No instance has here- 
tofore occurred, nor can any instance be expected hereafter to 
occur in which the unadulterated forms of -Republican gov- 
ernment can pretend to so fair an opportunity of justifying 
themselves by their fruits. In this view the citizens of the 
United States are responsible for the greatest trust ever con- 
fided to a political society. If justice, good faith, honor, grati- 
tude, and all the other qualities which ennoble the character 
of a nation and fulfill the ends of government, be the fruits of 
our establishment, the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity 
and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed ; and an example will 
be set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on 
the rights of mankind. If, on the other side, our government 
should be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these car- 
dinal and essential virtues, the great cause which we have 
engaged to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed ; the last 
and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of human nature 
will be turned against them; and their patrons and friends 
exposed to be insulted and silenced by the votaries of tyranny 
and usurpation." 

In 1794, while attending Congress in Philadelphia, he met 
at the house of his landlady her daughter, Dorothy Payne 
Todd, the young widow of a Quaker gentleman. She was a 
beautiful and vivacious woman of rare mental endowment, and 
over twenty years his junior. In the fall of that year they 
were married. No "lady of the White House" ever enjoyed a 
greater popularity than "Dolly Madison," as she was always 



THE FRAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTIO]^ 405 

called. "When notified, after the battle of Bladensburg, that 
she must immediately leave the White House to escape capture, 
she had a wagon hastily loaded with the building's silver plate 
and valuables, and hurried out of the city. The celebrated 
picture of Washington by Stuart she cut from its frame and 
gave to two friends from New York who just then entered, say- 
ing: 

"Save that picture. Save it, if possible; if not possible, de- 
stroy it ; under no circumstances allow it to fall into the hands 
of the British. " 

It was hidden in a farm house by Mr. Barker, restored to 
her, and now adorns the historic Presidential Mansion. 

The priceless parchment on which the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence M'as enrolled, and the original signatures of its sign- 
ers affixed, she carried in her own hands. So hurried was her 
flight that she left the table set and dinner prepared. Within 
a few minutes the British officers enjoyed "the feast prepared 
for the American President and his guests, then set fire to the 
White House, the Capitol, the Congressional Library, and the 
State and Treasury buildings. This vandal act, be it said to 
their credit, was as much condemned and deplored by the Brit- 
ish government as by the Americans. 

Mrs. Madison's ready wit, inimitable tact, rare discretion 
and genuine ability were as highly esteemed by the greatest 
statesmen of the time, as her social charms by the distinguished 
circle that filled the Capitol. She survived her illustrious hus- 
band many years, dying in Washington City, July 12, 1849. 

Madison's long career of unblemished honor, his stainless 
character, his versatile abilities, his great achievements — his 
whole eminent and useful life — gave him highest rank in the 
honor and gratitude of his country. Providence blessed hira 
for his noble work. After being the recipient of the highest 
honors a grateful people could bestow, at the ripe age of eighty- 
five he closed his useful life of splendid service, the last sur- 
vivor of the Framers of the Constitution. 



406 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TRAMEES 

George Mason 

George Mason was born in Prince William county, Virginia, 
in 1725, and died at his palatial home, Gunston Hall, Virginia, 
October 7, 1792. 

His ancestors, on both his father's and mother's side, were 
distinguished in England as well as America for the loftiest 
valor, virtue and ability. His great-grandfather. Colonel George 
Mason, was an officer in the army of Charles H, who about the 
year 1651 fled to Virginia from and forfeited his estate in Eng- 
land. The family, down to the illustrious "Framer" and since, 
has given to that state as eminent, honorable and useful men 
as are known in its history. 

The family of his mother, Anne Thomson, numbered among 
its members men who achieved distinction as lawyers and leg- 
islators in both countries. This mother, like the mother of 
Washington, Avas early left a widow, and to these two colonial 
mothers is due much of the credit of the careers of their famous 
sons. His father left no will. Under the law then existing the 
entire estate, subject to the widow's rights, descended to the 
eldest son, leaving the other children penniless. Mrs. Nelson so 
judiciously managed her property and invested her earnings 
that she left her youngest children wealthier than the eldest 
son. His mother's financial ability he inherited and became one 
of the wealthiest men of his time. 

The Washington and Mason families lived but a few miles 
apart, and George Washington and George Mason were in- 
timate friends from their boyhood, vestrymen in the same 
church, and made their first entry in legislative life in the same 
assembly in 1759. 

While his family was one of prominence and wealth, he 
never had the advantages of a collegiate education, but ac- 
quired his marvelous classical culture in the libraries of his 
home, and of his illustrious uncle, John Mercer. His accom- 
plishments as one of the best informed and most scholarly men 
of his day is a lasting lesson in self-education to American 
youth. 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 407 

Of all our historic characters he is among the most peculiar 
and remarkable. In his letter to the committee of merchants 
in London in June, 1766, one of the most masterly and concise 
presentations of the cause of the colonies in our history, he 
wrote : 

"These are the sentiments of a man who spends most of 
his time in retirement and has seldom meddled in public af- 
fairs ; who enjoys a modest but independent fortune, and con- 
tent with the blessings of a private station, equally disregards 
the smiles and frowns of the great." 

In his will he urged his sons to "prefer the happiness and 
independence of a private station to the troubles and vexations 
of public business." His own life was an example of these 
precepts. Possessed of a magnificent presence, splendid voice, 
and all the accomplishments of the orator ; enjoying the highest 
regard, not only of the people of his state, but of the leading 
men of the entire country, he was wholly indifferent to the 
attractions of public station, seemed utterly destitute of that 
high ambition which prompts so many worthy men to seek con- 
spicuous place, and never abandoned the attractions of his 
country home for public service except when great crises called 
into exercise his gigantic abilities. No hand more powerful 
than his aided in moulding the destiny of his country in con- 
tributions to the public press, the state papers and the legisla- 
tion of his day. He was one of the first men to urge the call- 
ing of a Congress by the colonies, yet, though repeatedly urged 
to accept a position therein, persistently declined to become a 
member of the Continental Congress, and also thereafter de- 
clined an appointment to the United States Senate, wherein his 
state would have undoubtedly rejoiced to continue him. He 
was devoted to his state, and his position as one of its delegates 
to the convention to frame the National Constitution was the 
only position of a national character he ever accepted. 

He drew up the non-importation resolution presented by 
Washington and unanimously passed by the Virginia legis- 
lature in 1769 ; and was a liberal and most influential con- 



408 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

tributor to the discussion of the great questions preceding the 
Revolution. His addresses then show the lofty plane upon 
which our forefathers stood in founding this free Republic, and 
his thought and language reappear in the Declaration of In- 
dependence and the Constitution he was then being educated 
to become a framer of. 

As early as 1775, when it was proposed at a meeting of the 
Fairfax Company in Alexandria, the first independent company 
formed in Virginia, the year previous for the defense of 
colonial rights, it was proposed that the officers should be 
elected annually. At that meeting Mr. Mason prepared a paper 
to be read in support of the measure containing these remarka- 
ble utterances : 

''No institution can be long preserved, but by frequent re- 
currence to those maxims on which it was formed. We came 
equal into this world and equal shall we go out of it. All men 
are by nature born equally free and independent. Every so- 
ciety, all government, and every kind of civil compact, there- 
fore, is or ought to be calculated for the general good and 
safety of the community. Every power, every authority, vested 
in particular men is, or ought to be, ultimately directed to this 
sole end; and whenever any power or authority extends fur- 
ther, or is of longer duration than is in its nature necessary for 
these purposes, it may be called government, but it is in fact 
oppression. In all our associations, in all our agreements, let us 
never lose sight of this fundamental maxim — that all power 
was originally lodged in and consequently is derived from the 
people. We should wear it is a breast-plate and buckle it on 
as an armour." 

In the famous Virginia Convention, which convened in May, 
1776, the first colony, or state convention formally declaring 
for independence, on the very day of his arrival, he was placed 
upon four of its most important committees, and from that day, 
says the great historian, George Bancroft, of all its members 
held the most sway over the minds of that convention. Both 
Jefferson and Madison credited him with tlie authorship of the 



THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 409 

Virginia constitution then drafted. As well said by Kate 
Mason Rowland, in her valuable biography of him, he was the 
architect and master builder of the new political structure of 
Virginia. He was as universally recognized to be the penman, 
the writer, as Patrick Henry the orator of his state. 

For this convention he drafted the famous Virginia Bill of 
Rights, the basis and guide of similar Bills of Rights in all of 
the colonies. No more valuable or fruitful document was ever 
penned by mortal man in any age or any country. In it, for 
the first time in all history, was proclaimed the need of our 
triune system of government, wherein the executive, legislative 
and judicial departments should be maintained separate, in- 
dependent and distinct. There is not a principle in it that has 
not been imbedded in the Constitution of our country and in 
the constitutions of the several states. It was the basis of the 
Declaration of Independence. It should be cherished and com- 
mitted by every child and citizen of this great republic, and 
made part and parcel of the political faith of all our people 
for all time. Its condensation, its comprehensive expression of 
the great truths essential to the liberty of mankind stamp its 
author as one of the greatest minds that this world has ever 
known, and entitle him to the grateful, honored memory of all 
mankind. 

The absence of such a Bill of Rights from the Constitution 
aroused the principal opposition to its ratification in the 
various states. The early incorporation of so much of it in 
the first ten amendments to the Constitution shows that had it 
been made part of the original, the major part of this opposi- 
tion would have been averted. Its great truths appealed to the 
people then as they now, and always will, appeal to the people 
of every land and race. These amendments are the peoples' 
part of the fundamental law of our Nation, the promise of 
which secured its ratification, and to George Mason's genius in 
their preparation is due the everlasting homage of universal 
humanity. 



410 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Virginia Declaration of Rights 

Prepared by George Mason in May, and passed by the Virginia Con- 
vention, June 12, 1776. 

A Declaration of Eights made by the Eepresentatives of the good 
people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention, which rights 
do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of 
government. 

1. That all men are created equally free and independent, and have 
certain inherent natural rights, of which they cannot, by any compact, 
deprive or divest their posterity; among which are the enjoyment of life 
and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and 
pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. 

2. That all power is by God and Nature vested in, and consequently 
derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, 
and at all times amenable to them. 

3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common 
benefit, protection and security of the people, nation or community. Of 
all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is 
capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is 
most effectually secured against the danger of mal-administration ; and 
that whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to 
these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalien- 
able, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner 
as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. 

4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate 
emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of pub- 
lic service; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magis- 
trate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary. 

5. That the legislative and executive powers of the State should be 
separate and distinct from the judicial; and that the members of the 
two first may be restrained from oppression by feeling and participating 
the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a 
private station, and return into that body from which they were originally 
taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain and regular 
elections. 

6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people 
in the legislature ought to be free, and that all men, having sufficient evi- 
dence of permanent, common interest with and attachment to the com- 
munity, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of 
their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of 
their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have 
not, in like manner, assented for the common good. 

7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 411 

any authority, Tvithout consent of the representatives of the people, is 
injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. 

8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to 
demand the cause and nature of his accusations, to be confronted with 
the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a 
speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous 
consent he cannot be found guilty, nor can he be compelled to give evidence 
against himself; and that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by 
the law of the land or the judgment of his peers. 

9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines 
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

10. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between 
man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and 
to be held sacred. 

11. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of 
liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. 

12. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, 
trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state; 
that standing armies in time of peace should be avoided, as dangerous to 
liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordina- 
tion to and governed by the civil power. 

13. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be pre- 
served to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, tem- 
perance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental 
principles. 

14. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the 
manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not 
by force or violence; and, therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest 
toleration in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, 
unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate, unless, under color of 
religion, any man disturb the peace, the happiness or the safety of society. 
And that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, 
love and charity towards each other. 

In a glass case, in the library of the Capitol at Richmond, 
Virginia, is preserved this priceless document, with the follow- 
ing indorsement, all in his own handwriting: 

"This Declaration of Rights was the first in America; it 
received few alterations or additions in the Virginia Conven- 
tion (some of them not for the better), and was afterwards 
closely imitated by the other United States. ' ' 



410 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Compare this with the greatest kindred documents in 
Anglo-Saxon history: 

The Declaration of Independence as a composition was the 
work of genius, and worthily crowns its author with deathless 
honor. But it was not original. It was a masterly compilation 
and condensation of the spoken and written outcries of an 
oppressed people against the crushing course of a government 
that, through misinformation and ill-information, had degen- 
erated into a tyrannical despotism. 

The magna charta was a contract between royalty and no- 
bility; between the crown and the lordly aristocracy in which 
the great common people — man as man — took no part. Its 
great successor, the Petition of Rights, addressed to and signed 
by "William and Mary, though an everlasting bulwark between 
the throne and the subject, was a petition, a prayer from the 
same aristocracy to supreme power, in which there was as much 
if not more of supplication than assertion. Though these will 
always justly merit the homage of the Anglo-Saxon race as 
among the greatest Declarations of Rights in English and 
American history, in moral grandeur, in practical significance, 
in fruitful inspiration for all mankind, the Virginia Bill of 
Rights in matchless majesty towers above them all. It was 
original. Strong, erect, stalwart, it spoke the voice of inde- 
pendent manhood for every age and race. It spoke the fearless 
free heart of humanity. It came from the brain of one who 
stood in the ranks shoulder to shoulder with the masses. No 
laurels of exalted station lifted him to adventitious or unde- 
serving fame. No official rank in his nation did he hold. He 
served his state alone. The entreaties of his home people, the 
insistence of Washington could never draw him to accept the 
merited honor of a prominent place in the national councils. 
It looks as though Providence preserved him in the place of 
the common man to voice in this Bill of Rights man's trumpet- 
toned assertion of his own manhood for all time and all peoples 
of the earth. 

Said Theodoric Bland : 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 413 

"In this declaration of Mason's man seems to stand erect 
in all the majesty of his nature, to assert the inalienable rights 
and equality with which he has been endowed by his Creator, 
and to declare the fundamental principles by which all rulers 
should be controlled, and in which all governments should rest. 
The contrast is striking, the difference prodigious." 

Said Hugh Blair Grigsby : 

"It is a curious illustration of the supremacy accorded to 
genius in great conjunctures that the British Declaration of 
Rights and the Virginia Declaration of Rights were written by 
men who had recently taken their seats for the first time in 
deliberative assemblies which were composed of the oldest and 
ablest statesmen of their respective periods. "When Somers 
drafted the Declaration of Rights he had spoken in the House 
of Commons for the first time only ten days before, and the 
parliamentary experience of Mason was hardly more extended, 
but Somers was an able lawyer deeply versed in constitutional 
learning, while Mason was a planter, untutored in the schools, 
whose life had been spent in a thinly settled colony, which 
presented no sphere for ambition. The genius of the Virginian 
appears in bolder relief when contrasted with the genius of his 
illustrious prototype. ' ' 

Said Henry Lee : 

"Thomas Jefferson as a lawgiver was far inferior to a man 
whom in popular favor and public honors he far outstripped. 
This man was George Mason. There is more wisdom, more con- 
densation of thought and energy of reason in a single clause 
(the fourth) of the Virginia Bill of Rights from the pen of 
that truly great man than in all the works of Mr. Jefferson put 
together. Here is a volume of wit and wisdom for the study of 
nations embodied in a single sentence and expressed in the 
plainest language. If a deluge of despotism should sweep over 
the world and destroy those institutions under which freedom 
is yet protected, sweeping into oblivion every vestige of their 
remembrance among men, could this single sentence of Mason's 



414 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

be preserved it would be sufficient to rekindle the flame of lib- 
erty and revive the race of free men." 

Said William C. Rives : 

"It is a condensed, logical and luminous summary of the 
great principles of freedom inherited by us from our British 
ancestors ; the extracted essence of Magna Chai-ta, the Petition 
of Right, the Acts of the Long Parliament, and the doctrines of 
the Revolution of 1688 as expounded by Locke, distilled and 
concentrated through the alembic of George Mason's own 
powerful and discriminating mind. There is nothing more re- 
markable in the political annals of America than this paper." 

Both Jefferson and Madison credit Mr. Mason with draw- 
ing not only the Bill of Rights, but also the constitution of Vir- 
ginia, Jefferson saying of him, "One of our really great men, 
and of the first order of great men." Madison says, "He was 
the master builder of the constitution, and its main expositor 
and supporter throughout the discussions which ended in its 
establishment." 

Said John Esten Cooke: "The first statesmen of his time 
consulted him and looked to him for guidance. He was not a 
lawyer, but his opinions on government had all the force and 
dignity of legislative decrees. He was one of the most re- 
markable men not only of his country and of his epoch, but of 
all countries and all time." 

Said General Richard Taylor: 

"Among the wise and good who in the past century secured 
the independence of our country and founded its government, 
George Mason of Virginia holds a place second to none." 

His peculiar tastes, his utter lack of personal ai^bition kept 
him from the exalted public stations that would doubtless have 
made his career one of the most conspicuous in American an- 
nals. It is to be regretted that his peculiar views made him 
refuse to enter the national legislature so urged upon him, and 
thus prevented his adorning the early congressional history of 
our country. 

In the Federal Convention he took a leading part in all of 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 415 

the great debates, and especially as to the election of presi- 
dent, favoring his election by direct vote of the people, for one 
term of seven years and no reeligibility. He denounced slavery 
as a source of national weakness and demoralization, and 
strenuously opposed any mention of it in the Constitution as 
a degradation to that instrument. When that was done he 
urged a provision prohibiting the slave trade at once, instead 
of allowing it to go on until 1808, saying: 

"This infernal traffic originated in the avarice of British 
merchants. The British government constantly checked the 
attempts of Virginia to put a stop to it. The question concerns 
not the importing states alone, but the whole Union. Slavery 
discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor 
when performed by slaves. They prevent the emigration of 
whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country. They pro- 
duce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master of 
slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of 
Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or pun- 
ished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable 
chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins 
by national calamities, ' ' 

Fourteen years before, in the Virginia legislature, he had 
striven to stop the slave traffic. In this convention he insisted 
that the general government should be expressly empowered to 
prevent the increase of slavery, and gradually extinguish it. 

His hostility to paper money was no less pronounced than 
that to slavery. 

Of all our great and historic characters not one was less led 
by policy, more by inflexible principle than he. He lived and 
measured up to his own simple, unboastful utterance, a plain, 
independent man alike indifferent to the smiles and frowns of 
the great. The "bargain," the "trade" between the two sec- 
tions whereby control of commerce by majority vote in the 
Federal Congress was exchanged for what then promised to be 
the perpetuation of slavery, was so abhorrent to him, such a 
sellout, bribing and betrayal of principle that he turned against 



4tl6 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

the constitution and never took part in the government under 
it. He could not comprehend the difference between a bargain 
and sale of political, and personal principle and honor; could 
never compromise on what he believed to be the right. If he 
supported a measure, it was because he believed in it heart and 
soul, and he stood or fell on its independent merits. No man 
took more frequent part in the great debates of the conven- 
tion, or was given more serious attention. In his every dis- 
cussion he focalized a flood of intellectual light on the subject 
considered. Nor did he waste words. His speeches were clear, 
cogent, condensed. His great mind grasped every significant 
point, and many of his utterances have proven prophetic. The 
tremendous power of patronage in a single hand to corrupt he 
vividly portrayed as has never been surpassed before or since. 
Of the people, he was for the people, and one-man power he 
denounced with the eloquent dread of one whose knowledge 
of man and motive was profound, and whose historic informa- 
tion of its evils was vast. He advocated either a plural execu- 
tive, or a council of control for a single president. 

He was a descendant of the Cavaliers, and among the first 
of the old-time Virginia aristocracy, yet no man more earnestly 
sought to safeguard the rights and welfare of the common 
people in the constitutions of his state and Nation. A slave- 
holder and the son of slave holders, he did all in his power to 
prevent its further extension, and to speedily abolish that exist- 
ing. There was no more sincere believer in or earnest advocate 
for a government of, by and for the people. 

Devoted to his state, by heredity, personal view and re- 
search he knew the throttling force of central tyranny in Brit- 
ish domination of his state's commerce and industries, and 
strove to perpetuate that state's sovereign control over its own 
affairs. Local self-government, states rights appealed to him 
above all things else. Like the great majority of his compeers, 
he was jealous of any encroachment upon the rights and pow- 
ers of the state government, and feared the formation of an 
over-powerful central government. Local self-government was 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 417 

the heart and soul of our American Revolution. It is not 
strange that the doctrine of states rights should have such a 
hold upon, should so appeal to the descendants of the men who 
staked their all to make that Revolution successful. 

His correspondence was extensive with the leading men of 
that historic day, who invariably sought his counsel and advice 
on the great problems that confronted them. 

He was tenderly devoted to his family. His first wife, Miss 
Anne Eilbeck, said to be the "lowland beauty" to whom Wash- 
ington gave the ardent devotion of his youth, was a woman of 
rare graces of mind and heart as well as person. For twenty- 
three years their married life was ideal. Her loss he never 
ceased to mourn. In his pocket, after his death, his daughter 
found a verse, in his handwriting, that may somewhat account 
for his refusal of public honors, closing the tender tribute to 
her with, 

"Alass! what can the honors of the world impart 
To soothe the anguish of a bleeding heart. ' ' 

Seven years after her death, in 1780, he married Miss Sarah 
Brent, who survived him. 

His nature w^as intense. He loved and hated with equal 
earnestness. Fearless, free from truculence, he "crooked no 
supple hinges of the knee that thrift might follow fawning." 
The greatest good for the greatest number, the universal de- 
mocracy he longed and strove to see here established on a foun- 
dation so solid that no power could ever undermine or destroy 
it. His private and public life is a beacon for honest, inde- 
pendent, energetic, informed action that should forever light 
the pathway of his countrymen. 

He refused to sign the constitution because he did not con- 
sider it sufficiently democratic, and fought its ratification by 
Virginia in the convention of that state called to pass upon it, 
saying, "The government will surely end either in monarchy 
or a tyrannical aristocracy," and denounced it before and 
after its adoption as "the sum of every evil." 



418 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

He was one of the typical, old school, cavalier gentlemen of 
Virginia, A man majestic in size, of faultless form, giant 
strength, courtly, self-willed, imperious. His face, browned by 
his country life under the Virginia sun, his iron-gray hair 
abundant and flowing, his superb bearing made him one of the 
most noticeable and picturesque personalities of the conven- 
tion. In addition, he was a man of profoundest learning, and 
loftiest eloquence, making his frequent participation in the 
great debates of the convention one of its specially remem- 
bered features by every member. James Madison said he was 
the ablest debater he ever knew. 

"There is a time when men shape for their land 
Its institutions 'mid some tempest's roar, 
Just as the waves that thunder on the strand 
Shape out and round the shore. 

"These rise before me; and there Mason stands, 
The Constitution-maker, firm and bold, 
Like Bernal Diaz, planting with kind hands 
Fair trees to blaze in gold." 

James McOlurg 

James McClurg was born at Hampton, Virginia, in 1747, 
and died at Richmond, Virginia, July 9, 1825. 

He was a college chum of Thomas Jefferson at William and 
Mary College, where he graduated im 1762. He studied for 
and took his degree in medicine at Edinburgh, Scotland, fol- 
lowing this with a post graduate course of two years in Paris 
and London. 

A medical essay written by him while at London was so 
highly esteemed that it was published in the different lan- 
guages of Europe. He was the author of many noted essays 
in the medical journals of his day, and stood at the head of 
his profession in Virginia. For many years he was a member 
of the executive council of that state, and when Patrick Henry 
declined to serve was sent to the Constitutional Convention in 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 419 

his stead. He favored making the presidential term during 
good behavior, practically for life, giving as his reason "to 
escape corrupt cabals and preserve a good officer in place." 

He met with an untimely fate. "While on a mission to heal, 
his horses ran away, wrecked his carriage and killed him. 

His classical culture, extended information, trained ability 
and practical good sense made him a worthy associate of the 
distinguished men who framed our Constitution. 

Edmund Randolph 

Edmund Randolph was born at Williamsburg, Virginia, 
August 10, 1753, and died in Clarke County, Virginia, Septem- 
ber 13, 1813. 

He was descended from Sir Thomas Randolph, whom the 
"Domesday Book" states was ordered by the English King to 
do duty in person against the King of France. The family was 
distinguished in English history by its eminent judges, law- 
yers, educators, diplomatists and literati. His American an- 
cestor came to Virginia in 1674, and became the owner of a 
princely plantation on the James River. His uncle, Peyton 
Randolph, was the first president of the Continental Congress. 
His father, eminent for scholarship and legal learning, was 
King's Attorney, went to England when hostilities broke out, 
and died there, directing his remains to be brought to and 
buried in his native Virginia, which was done. No family in 
Virginia has been more conspicuous for talent and character 
than his. 

At the age of eighteen he graduated at William and Mary 
College, where he was distinguished for studious industry, 
scholarly attainment, and unusual eloquence. His graduating 
oration on the founders of that college was of such extraordi- 
nary merit that the faculty had it published. 

He was educated for the bar by his father, and was a favor- 
ite of the Virginia Royalist Governor, Lord Dunmore. His 
enthusiastic devotion to the cause of American independence, 



420 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FBAMEES 

not only separated him from his father, but cost him the good 
will of the governor. 

He entered the army as aide to Washington in 1775, but 
returned to Virginia to look after family matters on the death 
of his uncle, Peyton Randolph, the first President of the Conti- 
nental Congress, and was sent to the Virginia convention in 
1776, in which he assisted in framing the State Constitution 
and drafting its Bill of Rights. In that convention he crossed 
swords with Patrick Henry in opposing giving the veto power 
to the governor. Soon thereafter he was elected mayor of 
Williamsburg and Attorney-General of the State — -the first 
under the constitution. 

In 1779 he was elected to the Continental Congress, soon 
resigned, was re-elected in 1780, and served therein three 
years. 

He was a member of the Annapolis Convention ; was elected 
Governor of Virginia in 1786; and it was due to his personal 
pleading that Washington reconsidered his refusal to become, 
and accepted a place as, a delegate to the National Constitu- 
tional Convention. 

In that convention Randolph was the proponent of the 
national theory — one of the three plans submitted — which Avas 
supported by the "Solid South." Recognized as one of the 
most brilliant men in the country ; holding the position of gov- 
ernor of the state then first in wealth and population, if not in 
influence, with ability equal to his splendid position, no fitter 
choice could have been made to open the momentous proceed- 
ings of that august body. 

He was a large man, somewhat portly, but of impressive 
figure, massive head, handsome and intellectual countenance, 
trained and experienced as an orator, with exceptional com- 
mand of language, musical voice, and most engaging manners. 

Time and again at home as well as abroad the downfall of 
the American attempt at free government had been predicted. 
He, with other leaders, believed that this could be averted 
only by correcting the defects in the Articles of Confederation, 
forming a firmer union and giving to it enlarged powers. He 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 43I 

fully realized that the event was the most momentous in the 
life of his country and himself, and he rose to the height of the 
great occasion. He opened his address with: 

' ' The confederation was made in the infancy of the science 
of constitutions, when the efficiency of requisitions were un- 
known, when no commercial discord had arisen among the 
states, when foreign debts were not urgent, when treaties 
were not violated," 

introducing the fifteen resolutions hereafter given and explain- 
ing them one by one. 

How much to be regretted it is that the rule of secrecy and 
closed doors adopted, prevented all record of his address to 
that magnificent body of intellectual giants, of which all ever 
after spoke with unstinted praise. 

Instead of one man for president, he favored an executive 
commission to be elected by congress, after the plan of the 
Swiss republic, and the granting of power to the national gov- 
ernment to veto, or annul the laws of any state decided to be 
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. He opposed the 
granting of the power of pardon to the president, the estab- 
lishment of the office of vice-president, the equality of the 
representation of the states in the United States Senate, and 
above all the absolute control of commerce by the United 
States Congress. For th^se reasons he refused to sign the con- 
stitution, unless it was agreed to call a second convention after 
the constitution had been submitted to the people for consider- 
ation, in order that such amendments might be made as he 
deemed essential. This having proved impossible, he redeemed 
his failure to sign that immortal document by earnestly and 
eloquently laboring for its ratification in the Virginia Con- 
vention, arguing that the union was a necessity under almost 
any terms, and that amendments could be better worked for 
under the union than without it. Upon his motion the word 
"Slavery" was stricken from the constitution. Like his col- 
leagues from Virginia, he was opposed to its continuance. 

Randolph resigned the governorship to become a member 
of the Virginia legislature, where he could better accomplish 



423 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

the revision of the state laws, and the Virginia code of laws 
of 1789 was, in consequence, mainly his work. 

He was appointed by Washington the first Attorney-Gen- 
eral of the United States. The most important case argued by 
him was that case — Chisholm v. Georgia — that provoked the 
eleventh amendment to the constitution, James Wilson's 
famous opinion, and more political debate, as well as political 
interest for a longer period than any in our history. The con- 
tention in his great argument that an alien could sue a state 
was sustained, and carried consternation to his southern 
friends, and debtors, state or individual, throughout the 
country. 

Upon the resignation of Jefferson, and at his urgent re- 
quest, Washington appointed Randolph Secretary of Sta:te. 
This was the crowning calamity of Randolph 's life. Our coun- 
try 's relations with England were not of the best, and with 
France were becoming more and more strained. As Secretary 
of State, he was forced into a diplomatic correspondence with 
Fauchet, the French Minister, wherein he attempted to soothe 
France over or blind her government to what ours and Eng- 
land's were doing. Fauchet was the typical diplomatic in- 
triguer, and impecunious besides. He wrote his government, 
intimating that with several thousand dollars he could in- 
fluence American affairs, and hinting that Randolph was sus- 
ceptible to bribery. This letter was taken at sea, forwarded 
to the British Minister, and by him given to Washington. A 
cabinet meeting was called. The *'Jay Treaty," most obnox- 
ious to France, was before them. Randolph had stoutly op- 
posed signing it, unless the clause continuing the right of 
Great Britain to search neutral vessels was removed, and still 
held to the same opinion. The rest of the cabinet were against 
him. The country was on the verge of both civil and foreign 
war. The view of the majority of the cabinet prevailed, the 
treaty was signed, and then Washington handed Randolph 
Fauchet 's letter. Randolph denied the imputation, resigned 
from the cabinet, and confronted Fauchet at Newport, whither 
he had gone from Philadelphia when recalled, and received 



•o 



THE PRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 423 

from him a full retraction and exculpation. But this could 
not save Randolph from the avalanche of political denuncia- 
tion that deluged and doomed him. He never recovered from 
the venal charge. Yet, away down in 1888, near a century too 
late, a search among the French archives at Paris revealed a 
letter from this same Fauchet, following the intercepted let- 
ter, and written before its interception was known, completely 
exonerating Randolph, and expressly stating that the reports 
of Randolph's susceptibility to bribery were false. Too late 
the honor of a patriot, neither Washington nor any intimate 
ever doubted, was cleared forever. Yielding the point — the 
right to search neutral vessels — in the "Jay Treaty" saved 
our country from war with Great Britain then, but it came in 
1812, and the principle Randolph stood for was settled in 
that war when the intrepid hero, Andrew Jackson, closed the 
hoped-for last bloody drama between England and America in 
the victory at New Orleans, January 8, 1814. 

Nor was this cruel calumny all that aided to crush Ran- 
dolph. The Secretary of State was then held personally re- 
sponsible for all "moneys placed in his hands to defray the 
expenses of foreign intercourse." The first blow was followed 
by the charge that there was a deficit of $49,000 during Ran- 
dolph's occupancy of the position. A protracted litigation 
followed. One after another, juries disagreed. Confident that 
he was not culpable, with the overweening credulity born of 
innocence of — aye, the incapability of committing any censur- 
able act, Randolph submitted the matter to the decision or 
arbitration of one man — the comptroller of the currency — who 
decided against him. Thereupon he turned over his entire 
property to the government, and the government realized from 
it $7,000, more than the principal and interest of the loss. He 
returned to Richmond, where he still stood in universal honor 
and confidence, and resumed the practice of law. He was one 
of the counsel of Aaron Burr in his trial for treason, at Rich- 
mond before Chief Justice John Marshall, and closed his ad- 
venturous career at the head of the Virginia bar. 



434 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

Eandolph's — "The Virginia Plan" 

1. "Besolved, That the Articles of Confederation ought to be so cor- 
rected and enlarged as to accomplish the objects proposed by their institu- 
tion; namely, 'common defence, security of Liberty, and general welfare.' " 

2. "Besolved, Therefore, that the rights of suffrage in the National 
Legislature ought to be proportioned to the quotas of contribution, or to 
the number of free inhabitants, as the one or the other rule may seem 
best in different cases." 

3. "Besolved, That the National Legislature ought to consist of two 
branches. ' ' 

4. "Besolved, That the members of the first branch of the National 
Legislature ought to be elected by the people of the several States every 

for the term of ; to be of the age of years at least; 

to receive liberal stipends by which they may be compensated for the 
devotion of their time to the public service; to be ineligible to any office 
established by a particular State, or under the authority of the United 
States, except those peculiarly belonging to the functions of the first 

branch, during the time of service, and for the space of after 

its expiration ; to be incapable of reelection for the space of 

after the expiration of their term of service, and to be subject to recall." 

5. "Besolved, That the members of the second branch of the National 
Legislature ought to be elected by those of the first, out of a proper number 
of persons nominated by the individual Legislatures, to be of the age of 

years at least, to hold their offices for a term sufficient to ensure 

their independency; to receive liberal stipends, by which they may be 
compensated for the devotion of their time to the public service, and to 
be ineligible to any office established by a particular State, or under the 
authority of the United States, except those peculiarly belonging to the 
functions of the second branch, during the term of service; and for the 
space of after the expiration thereof. ' ' 

6. "Besolped, That each branch ought to possess the right of originat- 
ing acts; that the National Legislature ought to be empowered to enjoy 
the legislative rights vested in Congress by the Confederation, and, more- 
over, to legislate in all cases to which the separate States are incompetent, 
or in which the harmony of the United States may be interrupted by the 
exercise of individual legislation; to negative all laws passed by the several 
States contravening, in the opinion of the National Legislature, the Articles 
of Union, or any treaty subsisting under the authority of the Union against 
any member of the Union failing to fulfill its duty under the Articles 
thereof. ' ' 

7. "Besolved, That a National Executive be instituted; to be chosen 

by the National Legislature for the term of ; to receive 

punctually, at stated times, a fixed compensation for the services rendered, 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 425 

in which no increase or diminution shall be made so as to affect the magis- 
tracy existing at the time of increase or diminution; and to be ineligible 
a second time; and that, besides a general authority to execute the 
National laws, it ought to enjoy the executive rights vested in Congress by 
the Confederation." 

8. "Resolved, That the Executive, and a convenient number of the 
National Judiciary, ought to compose a Council of Eevision with authority 
to examine every act of the National Legislature before it shall operate, 
and every act of a particular Legislature before a negative thereon shall 
be final; and that the dissent of the said Council shall amount to a rejec- 
tion, unless the act of the National Legislature be again passed, or that 

of a particular Legislature be again negatived by of the members 

of each branch." 

9. "Resolved, That a National Judiciary be established, to consist 
of one or more supreme tribunals, and of inferior tribunals to be chosen 
by the National Legislature; to hold their offices during good behavior, and 
to receive punctually, at stated times, fixed compensation for their services, 
in which no increase or diminution shall be made so as to affect the persons 
actually in office at the same time of increase or diminution. That the juris- 
diction of the inferior tribunals shall be to hear and determine in the first 
instance, and of the Supreme tribunal to hear and determine in the dernier 
resort, all piracies and felonies on the high seas; captures from an enemy; 
cases in which foreigners, or citizens of other States, applying to such 
jurisdictions, may be interested; or which respect the collection of the 
National revenue; impeachments of any National officers, and questions 
which may involve the National peace and harmony." 

10. "Resolved, That provision ought to be made for the admission of 
States lawfully arising within the limits of the United States, whether 
from a voluntary junction of government and territory or otherwise, with 
the consent of a number of voices in the National Legislature less than 
the whole." 

11. "Resolved, That a republican government, and the territory of 
each State, except in the instance of a voluntary junction of government 
and territory, ought to be guaranteed by the United States to each State." 

12. "Resolved, That provision ought to be made for the continuance 
of Congress «nd their authorities and privileges, until a given day after 
the reform of the Articles of Union shall be adopted, and for the completion 
of all their engagements." 

13. "Resolved, That provision ought to be made for the Amendment 
of the Articles of Union, whensoever it shall seem necessaiy; and that the 
assent of the National Legislature ought not to be required thereto." 

14. "Resolved, That the legislative, executive and judiciary powers 
within the several States ought to be bound by oath to support the Artick-s 
of Union." 



426 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

15. "Resolved, That the Amendments which shall be offered to the 
Confederation by the Convention ought, at a proper time or times, after 
the approbation of Congress, to be submitted to an assembly or assemblies 
of representatives, recommended by the several Legislatures, to be expressly 
chosen by the people to consider and decide thereon." 

Georg'e Washington 

George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, 
Virginia, February 22, 1732, and died at Mt. Vernon, Virginia, 
December 14, 1799. 

The family were among the prosperous gentry of the North 
of England. His great-grandfather, John Washington, about 
the year 1657 came to Virginia and settled at the place where 
he was born. 

His father, Augustine Washington, first married Miss But- 
ler, who died in 1728, leaving two sons, Lawrence and Augus- 
tine. His second marriage was with Miss Mary Ball, by whom 
he had four sons, George, John, Samuel and Charles; and one 
daughter, Betty, who became the wife of Colonel Fielding 
Lewis. 

His mother is claimed to be a descendant of John Ball, who- 
was executed at Coventry, England, in 1381, for taking part 
in Wat Tyler's rebellion. 

When he was ten years of age this remarkable woman, 
whom he always cherished with a reverent gratitude that his 
countrymen will forever honor, was left a widow, with five of 
her own children and the younger of her husband's former 
marriage, all of tender years. 

Though his father left an ample estate, he never went 
beyond a common school education. His religious and moral 
training by this noblest of noble mothers was of the best, and 
indelibly stamped his character with the high attributes that 
have made him revered by all mankind. 

He had a natural aptitude for mathematics and adopted the 
profession of a surveyor. 

The marriage of his elder half-brother, Lawrence, with 
Anne Fairfax, brought him to the notice of Lord Fairfax, pro- 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 427 

prietor of the northern neck of Virginia, and by him, at the 
age of eighteen, he was appointed surveyor for the territory. 
This work gave him an acquaintance with the lands of Vir- 
ginia that enabled him in after years to make investments so 
fortunate that he became one of the wealthiest landowners of 
the country. 

Between him and this half-brother always existed the 
warmest fraternal devotion — Lawrence was his boyhood's idol. 
Both inherited military instincts and tastes. Lawrence was 
an officer of high rank under Admiral Vernon when the British 
assailed the Spanish coast of South America, and in the fated 
expedition against Carthagena, where over twenty thousand 
English soldiers died from an epidemic resembling yellow 
fever, he contracted the ailment that in a few years ended his 
life. 

To restore his shattered health, he went to the Barbados, 
George went with him and was taken with small-pox, nearly 
losing his own life. Lawrence had acquired an estate on the 
Potomac, which he named Mt. Vernon, in honor of the Admiral 
under whom he served, and upon his death willed that estate 
and some $200,000 in property to his devoted half-brother, 
George. 

It was probably his loving admiration for this half-brother 
that induced . George to seek admission to the British Navy 
when a boy, and from which his mother dissuaded him. An 
event that would have changed his whole career. 

His life as a surveyor had familiarized him with the habits 
of the Indians and the woodsman's life. His sound judgment, 
intrepid courage and fearless honesty had impressed Governor 
Dinwiddie with his worth, and at the early age of nineteen he 
was appointed Adjutant-General of Virginia, with the rank of 
major. 

In 1753 the depredations of the Indians, instigated by the 
French, on the western frontier excited universal alarm. To 
investigate the causes for and suppress these growing out- 
breaks was the most serious problem of the colony. This was 
intrusted to the youthful commander, who led his expedition 



428 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

as far as Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg. He made a complete 
plan of Fort Le Boeuf, which, with his report, was reprinted 
in London, giving him an extended reputation in his own 
country as well as England. This was the first announcement 
of the hostile intent of France toward the western territory. 

As the French refused to withdraw from that territory, 
Virginia raised a regiment to drive them out. Washington 
was solicited to become a candidate for commander, but with 
characteristic modesty declined, and accepted the position of 
Lieutenant-Colonel under Colonel Fry. Enroute he learned 
that the French were advancing with hostile intent, and with 
a portion of the troop surprised and captured a French detach- 
ment. 

The death of Colonel Fry devolved the command upon him. 
The French and Indians outnumbered his troop five to one. 
He retreated to Fort Necessity, where a desperate battle was 
waged for a day, at the end of which he surrendered the fort, 
but saved his command, with which he returned to Virginia 
and was thanked by the Assembly for his splendid manage- 
ment of the campaign. 

The British government at that time issued orders that the 
American officers should be subordinated to the British, and 
he resented the affront by retiring from the service. 

In 1755 General Braddock selected him for his chief aide, 
and started on his ill-starred campaign. Unfamiliar with fron- 
tier warfare, and disregarding Washington's advice, Brad- 
dock pursued his route to Fort Duquesne, until in the disas- 
trous battle known as '' Braddock 's Defeat," he lost his life. 
Washington was the only officer unhurt in that terrific slaugh- 
ter, and he had two horses shot under him and four bullet 
holes in his coat. In after years an Indian chief related that 
he took deliberate aim and fired twelve times at Washington 
without harm, and believed the Great Spirit protected him. 
Washington severely denounced the terror of the panic- 
stricken regulars in that fight. 

Leading the shattered army back, he was appointed Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Virginia troops, and for the next three 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 439 

years was engaged in the frontier war that ended in the evac- 
uation of Fort Duquesne by the French and the recovery of 
the territory by the British, or rather by the colonists in their 
behalf. 

This raised him to the pinnacle among Colonial command- 
ers. Nor was this accomplished without contest with fearful 
odds against inadequate supplies, scarcity of men, and venom- 
ous personal detraction by the envious. 

The universal sentiment that ever since his day has clothed 
Washington with a common admiring regard has swept from 
view the assaults upon him as a man and an officer. Yet no 
conspicuous character in all our history has been more cruelly 
and wantonly assailed than he, or more signally triumphed 
over obstacle and enemy alike. 

At the close of this seven years' frontier warfare, January 
17, 1759, he married the widow, IMartha Parke Custis, whose 
womanly virtues are as revered as his manly worth; was 
elected to the Virginia Assembly, and for the next fifteen years 
devoted his life to the building up of his large estate and the 
legislative work of the Colonial Assembly. 

Upon his first appearance in the Virginia Assembly he was 
voted its unanimous thanks for his able management of the 
frontier campaigns. Rising to express his grateful apprecia- 
tion he blushed, stammered in confusion, and was so overcome 
with modesty that he was unable to reply, when Speaker Rob- 
inson said, "Sit down, Colonel Washington; your modesty is 
equal to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any lan- 
guage I possess." 

In 1756 the supercilious treatment of the American officers 
by the British, and the orders as to the rank of those officers, 
their subordination to the British officers, so exasperated the 
Americans that to right the matter, Washington undertook 
the horseback ride of five hundred miles to Boston to confer 
with General Shirley about it. His fame had preceded him, 
and at Philadelphia, New York, and other places en route his 
trip was a continuous ovation, and made many personal friends 



430 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

for him, who were of good service in his after illustrious 
career. 

In 1774 he was recalled to public life as a delegate .from 
Virginia to the Continental Congress, in which he served until 
made Commander-in-Chief of the American forces in 1775 by 
the unanimous vote of that congress. 

On accepting this exalted and perilous position he stated 
that he would never accept compensation for his services, but 
would keep an account of his expenses and ask that they only 
be paid, and this magnanimous resolve of the purest patriot 
our country ever knew he kept to the close in victory of the 
Revolution he led. 

Despite this the dark hours of that seven years' struggle 
were embittered for him by cabals in the army against him, 
and criticisms of the most virulent character in the congress. 

During the winter at Valley Forge, the opposition to him 
had gathered such force that an order for his deposition from 
command and arrest was averted by Mr. Duer, from New 
York, having himself carried on a stretcher, sick and unable 
to sit up, to the hall of the congress, the support of Francis 
Lewis from the same state and the timely arrival of Gouver- 
neur Morris, who joined with his friends in his defense. His 
triumph was so signal that the very men who joined in this 
cabal to elevate General Gates to the place of Commander-in- 
Chief in his stead, were afterwards the loudest in his praise, 
and gave lifelong regret for their unjust action. At another 
time the British produced a number of letters, perfect fac- 
similes of his handwriting and stamping him as a traitor, that 
were said to have been captured at a certain post where he 
was stationed in a satchel carried by his body servant, John. 

The clumsy, yet artful, forgery was exposed when it was 
shown he had not only not been at that post, but never had 
such body servant at all. 

Resigning as Commander-in-Chief at the close of the war, 
he retired to Mt. Vernon and the hoped-for quiet life of the 
Virginia planter, followed by the loving, grateful honor of his 
whole country. 



THE FKAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 43I 

The framing of the Constitution again called him to his 
country's service. He was unanimously chosen President of 
the Convention, and upon the adoption of the Constitution 
unanimously elected our first President, and in the same man- 
ner re-elected. 

He declined to permit his election for a third term, and 
again retired to Mt. Vernon. 

In 1798, when war was imminent with France, he was ap- 
pointed by President Adams Commander-in-Chief of the pro- 
posed American Army. 

On December 13, 1799, he was drenched in a cold rain, took 
pneumonia, and after an illness of a day the stalwart man who 
had borne uninjured so many hardships in the forests and on 
the fields of war closed the brightest career in all his coun- 
try's, if not in the world's history. 

All America was draped in mourning. The civilized world 
joined in its grief. "First in war, first in peace, and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen," he was and always will be en- 
shrined in America's honor and love. 

The bitter assaults upon his presidential administration 
were buried in lasting oblivion. He then became the owner- 
ship of the ages, the idol of the country to which he had de- 
voted and for which he had so often staked his life. 

He was a man of deep religious conviction. His piety was 
as marked as his courage. The embodiment of truth. The 
soul of honor. No word or act in his long career ever marred 
the perfection of this marvelous character. 

He was over six feet in height, strongly built, a leader in 
athletic games in his youth, and as strong in muscle as in mind. 

He was a man of severe dignity, and always exacted the 
respect due the high positions he held. 

The beautiful tribute of William Hooper of North Carolina 
in a letter to Robert Morris, during the Revolution, expresses 
the calm judgment of history as to his character and career, 

''When it shall be consistent with policy to give the history 
of that man from his first introduction into our service; how 
often America has been rescued from ruin by the mere strength 



432 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

of his genius, conduct and courage; encountering every ob- 
stacle that want of money, men, arms and ammunition could 
throw in his way; an impartial world will say with you, he is 
the greatest man on earth.. Misfortunes are the elements in 
which he shines ; they are the groundwork on which his picture 
appears to the greatest advantage. He rises superior to them 
all; they serve as forts to his fortitude, and as stimulants to 
bring into view those great qualities which his modesty con- 
cealed." 

Verily it seems that Providence preserved such a character 
to found the republic of freedom, and form the everlasting 
model for its youth. 

Verily, he was ''The Father of his Country," the man 
whose influence and character contributed most of all to the 
formation of our Union, whose eulogy is written in the world's 
love; but whose combination of the cunning of the diplomat, 
the sagacity of the soldier, the far-sighted, broad-minded abil- 
ity of the practical statesman, and the wisdom of the philoso- 
pher, has not yet been fully appreciated. With all the pardon- 
able pride of an American, it may be truly said that panegyric 
has been unable to praise him too highly. Hallowed in the 
perpetual memory of his country, Washington remains still 
easily the first American. 

George Wythe 

George Wythe was born in Elizabeth County, Virginia, in 
1726, and died June 8, 1806. 

The career of this remarkable man, the greatest of Virginia 
chancellors, a man whose professional and judicial life was so 
conspicuous for spotless purity and flawless conscience, is a 
monument to American motherhood that should be forever 
kept in the familiar view of every American family, as an up- 
lifting, ennobling and instructive lesson to the American 
mother, as well as the American boy and man. 

More than any man of his day he was the fruit of a cultured 
mother's zealous teaching and self-sacrificing devoted love. 

His father was a farmer of ample means, yet in the schools 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 433 

he never went beyond the mere rudiments of education. 

His mother was a woman of unusual mental endowment 
and classical attainment. She taught him Latin, in which she 
was proficient, studied Greek with him, and was teacher and 
chum in his acquiring a profound knowledge of grammar, 
rhetoric, logic, mathematics, and natural and moral philosophy. 

Losing this devoted mother, as well as his father, just as 
he reached majority, and inheriting a fortune, he plunged into 
dissipation and wasted several years in idle excesses. His bit- 
ter remorse over this folly burdened all his after life. After 
playing the prodigal during the precious years of early man- 
hood, his mother's holy memory rescued and turned him 
toward the upward path of useful honor and integrity she so 
wisely directed in his youth. He rapidly rose to the head of 
the Virginia bar, and was as conscientious a lawyer, as just a 
judge as our country ever knew. 

He would not undertake an unjust cause for any fee, how- 
ever large, and if he found he had been deceived, would return 
what was paid him and abandon the case. Yet his industry 
and fidelity to a just cause knew no bounds. This gave his 
appearance in any case extraordinary weight, and when he 
linked with his known character, ability the most consummate, 
he became almost irresistible in whatever cause he espoused. 

He was early elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, of 
which he remained a member until the Revolution. 

That body was then composed of men famous in our his- 
tory, such as Robert C. Nicholas, Edmond Pendleton, Richard 
Bland, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry 
and Benjamin Harrison. His eminent place in such a galaxy 
of greatness proves his splendid ability. 

In 1764 he was made one of a committee to prepare a peti- 
tion to the King; a memorial to the House of Lords; and a 
remonstrance to the House of Commons on the proposed 
Stamp Act. The latter was drawn by him and was of such 
fearless boldness in stating colonial rights that the House of 
Burgesses, while applauding its courage, hesitated to adopt its 
language. 



434 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

He was one of the leading spirits who, in 1768, procured the 
passage of the famous Virginia resolutions, in which was as- 
serted her exclusive right of taxation, and denunciation of the 
violation of the British Constitution by Parliament in its op- 
pressive acts concerning the colonies, and the oppression of 
trying persons in England for offenses committed in the 
colonies. 

This provoked the dissolution by the governor of the 
House of Burgesses. Wythe was one of the members re-elected 
and his bold stand against the oppression of the mother coun- 
try placed his very life in danger. 

Two Presidents and our greatest Chief Justice were his 
pupils, and doubtless the' influence of his teachings helped to 
mould the love of liberty that inspired Thomas Jefferson in 
his writing of the Declaration of Independence. 

In 1775 he volunteered as a private soldier to stake his life 
in support of the cause he had advocated, but Virginia called 
him to a higher place as a delegate to the Continental Congress. 

In 1776 he was appointed with Thomas Jefferson, Edmond 
Pendleton, George Mason and Thomas Ludwell Lee, to revise 
the laws of Virginia. The death of Lee and resignation of 
Mason left this great work to Wythe, Jefferson and Pendleton, 
and after three years' labor they reported one hundred and 
twenty-six bills, constituting a new code of laws based upon 
the English common law. 

In 1777 he was chosen speaker of the House of Delegates 
and in the latter part of the same year was appointed one of 
the three judges of the high Court of Chancery of Virginia. 

Subsequently he was made sole Chancellor and as such filled 
this exalted station for more than twenty years. His Chancery 
reports during this time are yet held in highest esteem. 

After the revolution a case came before him in behalf of 
British creditors and against the State of Virginia. Popular 
prejudice was overwhelmingly against the foreign creditor 
and the entire country deeply interested in his decision. He 
rose to the supreme height of a just, fearless and impartial 
judge and decided against the state. 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 435 

During the Revolution he lost most of his property and his 
salary as Chancellor was not over three hundred pounds an- 
nually. For a while he added some to this by accepting the 
professorship of law in the College of William and Mary. Yet 
during much of his time he gave, without charge, instruction 
to many young men who became eminent in Virginia history. 

He emancipated his slaves, and not only gave them free- 
dom, but sufficient to start them in life. One of his negro boys 
who displayed unusual ability, he taught the Latin and Greek 
languages and advanced considerably in the sciences. 

His life was one of unpretentious modesty, unaffected sim- 
plicity and evenness of temper. On his deathbed he displayed 
that entire confidence in the Christian religion, which had been 
the unprofessed yet distinguishing mark of his life. 

Strange to say, this kindly, benevolent, learned and tender- 
hearted man, who never wilfully injured any one, and never 
failed to help the entire circle of his friends and fellows, died 
at the hands of some miscreant who administered poison in his 
food. The charge of his assassination was visited upon his 
heir, who was indicted for the awful crime, but his acquittal 
by the jury spares American history the shame of a crime so 
atrocious having been committed by one in whose veins flowed 
the blood of such a flawless character. 

He was one of the great actors in framing the Constitution 
of the United States, and thereafter twice a member of the 
Presidential Electoral College of Virginia. 

He was twice married, his first wife the daughter of Mr. 
Lewis, an eminent lawyer under whom he studied law; his 
second a Miss Taliafero. His only child died in infancy. 

Thomas Jefferson voiced the sentiment of all who knew 
him, when he paid the following tribute to his memory : 

"No man ever left behind him a character more venerated 
than George "Wythe. His virtue was of the purest kind; his 
integrity inflexible and his justice exact; of warm patriotism, 
and devoted as he was to liberty, and the natural and equal 
rights of men, he might truly be called the Cato of his country, 
without the avarice of the Roman; for a more disinterested 



436 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

person never lived. Temperance and regularity in all his hab- 
its gave him general good health, and his unaffected modesty 
and suavity of manners endeared him to every one. He was of 
easy elocution, his language chaste, methodical in the arrange- 
ment of his matter, learned and logical in the use of it, and of 
great urbanity in debate. Not quick of apprehension but with 
a little time, profound in penetration, and sound in conclusion. 
In his philosophy he was firm, and neither troubling, nor per- 
haps trusting any one with his religious creed, he left to the 
world the conclusion that that religion must be good which 
could produce a life of such exemplary virtue. 

His stature was of the middle size, well formed and propor- 
tioned, and the features of his face, manly, comely and engag 
ing. Such was George Wythe, the honor of his own, and model 
of future times." 

From North Carolina 
William Blount 

William Blount was born in Bertie County, North Carolina, 
March 26, 1749, and died in Knoxville, Tennessee, March 21, 
1800. 

The Blount family, distinguished in North Carolina for 
over a century previous to his career for patriotism, intelli- 
gence, enterprise and integrity, was prominent in English his- 
tory. It was of Norman origin, an early ancestor coming to 
England with William the Conqueror, who bore the name of 
Le Blount and acquired large landed estates in England. One 
of its members, Sir Walter Blount, was created a Baronet in 
1642. 

The American ancestor, Thomas Blount, came to Virginia 
in 1664. Jacob Blount, father of William, removed to North 
Carolina, became one of its wealthiest men, and was a distin- 
guished member of its legislature, in 1775-1776. 

After several years of active service in the legislature, 
William Blount was elected to the Continental Congress in 




THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 437 

1782, and re-elected in 1783, 1786 and 1787, taking a prominent 
part in its proceedings. 

Governor Richard Caswell was chosen a delegate to the 
Constitutional Convention, but his duties preventing his at- 
tendance he appointed Mr. Blount a delegate in his stead. 

While he took an active and influential part in that conven- 
tion, he was not satisfied with the result and stated that he 
would not sign so as to pledge himself to the support of the 
plan, but was relieved by the form of signing proposed, and 
would, without committing himself, attest the fact that the 
plan was the unanimous act of the States in Convention. He 
was a member of the North Carolina Convention that ratified 
the Constitution. 

In 1790 he was appointed by Washington governor of the 
territory south of the Ohio River, and founded the city of 
Knoxville, Tennessee, the first capitol of the State and his 
future home. 

He was chosen President of the Convention called by him 
to frame the Constitution under which Tennessee was admitted 
into the Union, and was elected one of the first United States 
Senators from that State in 1796. 

At that time intense hostility to Spain was felt by the peo- 
ple of the southwest territory on account of the obstructions to 
the navigation of the lower Mississippi by that country, to 
which it belonged. 

In July, 1797, President Adams sent a message to Congress 
that the nation was in a critical condition, that a conspiracy 
had been formed to wrest New Orleans and the Floridas from 
the King of Spain, and transfer them to the British crown, 
and that an intercepted letter of Senator Blount showed that 
he was engaged in the conspiracy, and had endeavored to insti- 
gate the Creek and Cherokee Indians to join in the movement. 
Our country's relations with Spain were friendly and cordial. 
The National House of Representatives preferred articles of 
impeachment against him for this action toward a friendly 
nation. Instead of trying him upon these articles, the United 
States Senate took its own course and expelled him — the first 



438 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

instance in our history of the expulsion of a Senator. When 
the Sergeant-at-Arms of the United States Senate went to 
Tennessee to arrest and take him to Philadelphia for trial un- 
der the articles, of impeachment, he refused to go or suffer 
arrest, and not a man in the state would aid the luckless officer, 
who was forced to return without him. He was tried in 1798, 
Jared Ingersoll and George M. Dallas defending him, and was 
acquitted on the ground that he was no longer a Senator and 
the tribunal had no jurisdiction. 

This charge increased his popularity in Tennessee. He was 
elected to the Senate of that state and unanimously chosen 
President of that body. 

He married Mary, the accomplished daughter of General 
Caleb Granger, of Wilmington, North Carolina, and the county 
seat of the county named after him in Tennessee was called 
Maryville, not only upon his request, but by the willing honor 
of the people of the county to this estimable woman. 

He was a man of imposing appearance, ripe culture, and 
abundant means, and indulged a generous hospitality that 
added to his popularity. 

His son, W. Granger Blount, was a member of Congress 
from Tennessee from 1815 to 1819 ; his only daughter became 
the first wife of the celebrated General E. C. Gaines, of 
Tennessee. 

William Richardson Davie 

William Eichardson Davie was born at Whitehaven, Eng- 
land, January 20, 1756. He came, with his father, to South 
Carolina in 1764; was adopted by his uncle. Rev. William 
Richardson, and educated at Princeton, graduating in 1776. 

At once, with a party of fellow students, he volunteered in 
the Continental Army. At the close of his period of service 
he entered upon the study of law at Salisbury, North Caro- 
lina; again entered the army in 1779 as lieutenant; rose to 
command of his troop, and joined Pulaski's legion; was so se- 
verely wounded at the battle of Stone Ferry that he was forced 
to leave the army and returned to Salisbury to practice his 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 439 

profession. This his patriotic zeal could not endure. In 1780 
he raised a body of cavalry, spent his last dollar in its equip- 
ment, and with this force protected the southwestern part of 
his state from British invasion. 

He took part in the battles of Hanging Rock and Rocky 
Mount, and rose to the rank of colonel commanding the cav- 
alry in North Carolina ; accompanied General Greene through- 
out his w^iole southern campaign, and at his solicitation be- 
came commissary general of the army in the South. 

He was repeatedly elected to the North Carolina Legisla- 
ture, and was known as the first orator of that body. 

His brilliant military career gave him prestige and his culti- 
vated native ability made him a power in whatever cause he 
espoused. 

Said Judge Murphy of the Supreme Court of North Caro- 
lina : 

"Davie took Lord Bolingbroke for his model, and applied 
himself with so much diligence to the study of his master 
that literary men could easily recognize his lofty and flowing 
style. He was a tall, elegant man in his person, graceful and 
commanding in his manners. His voice was mellow and 
adapted to the expression of every passion. His style was 
magnificent and flowing. He had a greatness of manner in 
public speaking, which suited his style and gave his speeches 
an imposing effect. He was a laborious student, and arrangecf 
his discourses with care, and, when the subject suited hii> 
genius, poured forth a torrent of eloquence that astonished 
and enraptured his audience. They looked upon him with de- 
light, listened to his long, harmonious periods, caught his emo- 
tions, and indulged that ecstasy of feelings which fine speak- 
ing and powerful eloquence alone can produce. He is cer- 
tainly to be ranked among the first orators whom the Amer- 
ican nation has produced." 

Returning to his profession at the close of the war, his 
career in it was as conspicuous as his military services had 
been brilliant. 

"When war was threatened between the United States and 



440 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

France in 1798 he was appointed a brigadier general in the 
United States army, and prepared a system of cavalry tactics 
which was published and used in the service. 

In 1799, with Chief Justice Ellsworth, he was one of the 
special envoys of the United States to France to arrange a 
treaty of peace and amity. 

Three times he served in settling the disputed boundary 
between North and South Carolina. 

He was governor of North Carolina, and one of the most 
distinguished and influential the state ever had. 

He drew the act establishing the University, of North Caro- 
lina; was a member of the board of trustees; as grand master 
of the Masons laid the cornerstone and personally saw to the 
erection of its buildings and the selection of its faculty. In 
all that related to the educational advancement of his state 
he was constantly'' active. 

While active as a framer, and ardent as a supporter of the 
ratification of the Constitution by his state, that at first de- 
feated it, serious illness in his family called him home, prevent- 
ing his presence at the time it was signed. 

Soon after his return as special envoy to France he lost 
his wife. This lady, a daughter of Gen. Allen Jones, was a 
woman of excellent culture and lovely character, whose death 
shadowed his after life. 

He had been one of the most influential and laborious servi- 
tors of his state as legislator, soldier, governor, and represen- 
tative in the Constitutional Convention. 

Upon her death he removed to his estate near Camden, 
South Carolina, declined all public position, devoted himself 
to the care and education of his children, and passed to his 
final reward November 8, 1820. 

Alexander Martin 

Alexander Martin was born in New Jersey in 1740, and 
died at Danbury, North Carolina, November, 1807. 

When a child his parents removed to North Carolina. He 
graduated at Princeton in 1756. In 1772 he was elected to the 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 441 

North Carolina Assembly, and in 1774-1775 to its Provincial 
Congress. In 1776 he was appointed colonel of the Second 
North Carolina regiment and took part in the battles of Ger- 
mantown and Brandywine, but was courtmartialed and dis- 
missed from the service for hiding behind a tree during one 
of the engagements of his command. 

From 1779 to 1782, 1785 to 1788, he was a member of the 
state senate, during most of the time president of that body, 
and in 1781, during Governor Burke's captivity, acting gov- 
ernor. 

In 1782, and again in 1789, he was elected governor, and 
in 1793 was elected to the United States Senate. 

Richard Dobbs Spaight 

Richard Dobbs Spaight was born in Newbern, North Caro- 
lina, March 25, 1758, there made his home, and there died 
September 6, 1802. His ancestry was distinguished. 

His father was secretary and clerk of the crown, an office 
next in rank to that of the governor; his mother, the sister 
of Arthur Dobbs, governor of the province from 1754 to 1766, 
Left an orphan at the age of eight years, he was sent to Ire- 
land to be educated, completing his collegiate course at Glas- 
gow, Scotland. 

After an absence of twelve years devoted to education, he 
returned to his native land, at once entered the army, became 
aid-de-camp to General Richard Caswell, and took an active 
part in the campaigns in the Carolinas. A kinsman. Captain 
William Spaight, took part on the British side at the battle of 
Bunker Hill. 

From 1781 to 1783 he was a member of the North Carolina 
Legislature, the latter year being elected to the Continental 
Congress. 

He was one of the most active members of the Constitu- 
tional Convention ; favored the election of United States sena- 
tors by the state legislatures; proposed a term of seven years 
for senators and President, and opposed a constitutional pro- 
vision requiring more than a majority vote of Congress to pass 



442 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

a navigation act. 

"With Davie and other illustrious men he labored in vain 
to secure the ratification of the Constitution by his state in 
1788. It was upon his invitation that "Washington visited 
North Carolina the next year and gave an impetus to the ef- 
forts of her patriot sons that secured the desired ratification 
and made that state the twelfth to enter the Union. 

In 1792 he was elected to the state legislature, and by that 
body elected governor — the first native of the state to fill that 
high position. 

From 1797 to 1801 he was a member of the United States 
House of Kepresentatives. 

He was an ardent supporter of Thomas Jefferson. In the 
heated campaign of 1802 he was challenged by his opponent, 
John Stanley, to fight a duel, which took place September 5 
of that year. Governor Spaight was mortally wounded and 
died the next day. 

His untimely death at so early an age, when his previous 
brilliant career gave high promise of growing distinction, was 
universally mourned. 

His eldest son, who bore his name, became a leading states- 
man of his state, member of Congress and governor ; his daugh- 
ter the wife of Judge John R. Donnell. 

He was a man of extraordinary natural talent and splendid 
culture, ranking with the ablest men of his day. Heredity and 
environment gave him taste and aptitude for public affairs, 
his educational preparation and constant study fitting quali- 
fication for the great duty that devolved upon a framer of our 
country's Constitution. 

Hugh Williamson 

Hugh "Williamson, a Scotch-Irishman, who came to Pennsyl- 
vania from Dublin in 1730. Hugh, his eldest son, was born in 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, December 5, 1735. He was a 
delicate child, and this induced his father to give him a lib- 
eral education. He was first sent to the school of the cele- 



THE FKAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 443 

brated Eev. Francis Allison, under whom, among many fa- 
mous men, Charles Thomson, secretary of the old Congress 
during its entire existence ; Thomas McKean and Dr. Benjamin 
Rush, had their early tutelage. Thence he was sent to the 
academy at Newark, Delaware, and from there to the College 
of Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1757. He then studied 
theology under Dr, Samuel Finley, and was licensed but not 
ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian church, the dispute 
in the church at that time causing him to abandon the minis- 
try. 

He then began the study of medicine, and from 1760 to 
1764 was professor of mathematics in the College of Philadel- 
phia. In 1764 he resigned this professorship and went to the 
University of Edinburgh, Scotland, to pursue his medical edu- 
cation ; spent a year thereafter in London, and completed his 
course at Utrecht, Holland. Devoting some time to travel in 
Europe, he returned to his native land and began the practice 
of medicine in Philadelphia. 

On account of his rare scholarship he was chosen a member 
of the American Philosophical Society, and with David Ritten- 
house. Dr. Ewing and Charles Thomson took observations on 
the transits of Venus and Mercury in 1769. 

In 1773 he again visited Europe in behalf of the Newark 
Academy. During this visit hostilities broke out, and Lord 
North said he was the first person to predict in his hearing 
that coercive measures by Parliament would result in civil 
war. He was the man M^ho procured the letters of Hutchinson, 
Oliver and others and gave them to Franklin, who sent them 
to Boston, for which Wedderburne, before the Privy Council, 
called Franklin a thief. 

"When independence was declared he returned to America 
and engaged in business with his brother at Edenton, North 
Carolina. 

When the North Carolina troops went to the relief of 
South Carolina he accompanied them as surgeon. After the 
battle of Camden, he requested General Caswell to give him a 



444 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEKS 

flag that he might go and attended the wounded North Caro- 
lina prisoners. The general advised him to send a subordinate, 
as his duty did not require him to go. He replied that those 
he had seen refused to go on account of fear of the conse- 
quences, adding, "I will go. If I have lived until our flag 
will not protect me I have outlived my country; and in that 
case have lived a day too long." He went; remained two 
months in the enemy's camp; attended friend and foe alike, 
and won the grateful regard of both armies. 

He continued his residence at Edenton and served in the 
House of Commons of North Carolina for several terms, and 
was three times elected to the Congress of the Confederation. 

He was a delegate from North Carolina to the Annapolis 
and the Constitutional conventions; was a zealous advocate of 
the Constitution, and had the gratification of being a member 
of his state's convention that adopted it. 

He was sent by North Carolina to the first and second 
Congresses of the United States under the Constitution. 

In 1789 he married Miss Maria Apthorpe, of New York, 
and removed to that state, where he became a writer on philo- 
sophic subjects ; an advocate of the great canal system of New 
York, and a promoter of the educational system as well as 
many scientific and philanthropic institutions and enterprises 
of the state. 

In 1812 he published a history of North Carolina. 

He was a man of great intellectual industry and sterling 
Christian character; a profound scholar; a life-long worker 
for the uplifting of mankind, and the intellectual development 
of the communities where he lived, as well as their material 
advancement. His day and time knew no more useful life. 

He died at New York, May 22, 1819, and an eloquent tribute 
to his useful life and honored memory by the eminent Dr. 
Hosack has a place among the treasures of the New York His- 
torical Society. 

He left no descendants, his two sons dying in childhood. 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 445 

From South Carolina 
Pierce Butler 

Pierce Butler was born in Ireland, July 11, 1744, and died 
at Philadelphia, February 15, 1822. 

He was the son of Sir Richard Butler, fifth baronet of the 
family of the dukes of Ormond, and member of Parliament 
from 1729 to 1761. His pride in his ancestry subjected him to 
no little ridicule among the rugged patriots, whose abiding 
faith was that all men are created free and equal. 

He entered the British army at an early age, rose to the 
rank of major, and for many years was stationed in that army 
at Boston. 

Marrying a daughter of Colonel Middleton, of South Caro- 
lina, in 1768, he resigned from the army, and in 1773 removed 
to South Carolina. Of superior oratorical and cultured accom- 
plishments, he became one of that state's most famous law- 
yers. 

In 1787 he was elected to both the Continental Congress 
and the Constitutional Convention. He favored the "Vir- 
ginia" plan; opposed the triple, supported the proposition of 
a single executive, or president, and with hereditary bent 
contended that property should be the only basis for repre- 
sentation in the United States Congress. 

He was United States senator from South Carolina from 
1789 to 1796, when he resigned, and again filled that position 
from 1802 to 1804, when he again resigned. 

He was one of the opposition to Washington's administra- 
tion, but voted to ratify the ''Jay Treaty," and was a director 
in the first and second United States bank. 

In him the aristocrat joined with our democratic fathers 
in founding our free republic and framing its Constitution. 
Charles Pinckney 

No family in America was more distinguished for purity 
of private and public life ; for zealous patriotism ; for unflinch- 
ing courage, and for splendid ability, than that of the Pinek- 
neys. 



446 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

All were inspired with a loftiness of purpose and inflexi- 
bility of principle that made their lives glorify our country's 
history. 

They were people of means and station, yet none more 
humbly and sincerely worshiped the God of our fathers, ex- 
hibited fewer of the vanities that attend wealth and station, 
or cherished a sincerer regard for the rights of the plain peo- 
ple, of whom they ever considered themselves a part. 

They, as the other great historic characters of the day, 
thought no public place of insignificant honor and gave to 
their state legislatures the same devoted zeal and laborious 
effort that shone so conspicuously on the stage of national 
action. 

Some of them even retired from the National Congress to 
help frame their state laws, and left legacies of state honor 
as precious as their great achievements in the broader field 
of national life. 

Of such was Charles Pinckney, who was born in South 
Carolina, October 26, 1757, and died October 29, 1824. 

Beginning his public career in the South Carolina Legisla- 
ture in 1779, he was almost continuously in official station 
until he retired from Congress in 1820. Many years of this 
period he served in the state legislature. Four times, in 1789, 
1791, 1796, and 1806, he was elected governor. Three times, 
in 1784, 1785, and 1786, he was elected to the old Congress. 

In 1798 he was elected to the United States Senate to fill 
an unexpired and full term, but resigned on being appointed 
minister to Spain by President Jefferson in 1801. While on 
this mission he negotiated the treaty with Spain whereby that 
nation relinquished all claim to the territory known as the 
"Louisiana Purchase." 

Upon his return from this important post he was elected 
governor; after his re-election to the governorship was again, 
in 1812, returned to and rendered his final services in the 
state legislature. 

He took an active part in the battles of the Revolutionary 



THE FRAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 447 

war at and around Charleston ; at the fall of that city he was 
made a prisoner and suffered two years' confinement. 

He was the founder of the Democratic party in South Caro- 
lina, and for many years the leader of those who espoused the 
political doctrines of Thomas Jefferson. 

His last noted service in the United States Congress was 
in 1820 in one of the ablest arguments ever made against the 
''Missouri Compromise." 

He was one of the few Southern statesmen who opposed 
that measure, and correctly foresaw what it would result in. 
From their viewpoint he was correct. 

But scant justice has been done this able and eminent 
statesman. His draft of a constitution presented to the Con- 
stitutional Convention was by far the most comprehensive and 
systematic of all. It was the golden mean between the four 
plans advocated. He was the youngest proponent. So much 
of the arrangement and so many of the provisions of what he 
submitted appear in the Constitution that he might appro- 
priately be called the "Father of the Constitution," and to 
South Carolina might properly be accorded the leadership in^ 
the preparation of that immortal instrument. 

He was only twenty-nine years old when appointed by the 
legislature one of the four delegates to the Federal Conven- 
tion. Young as he was, and surrounded, too, as he was by the 
most eminent sages and statesmen of the country, to have as- 
sumed and maintained such a position in such a body as to 
have caused their work literally and emphatically to be identi- 
fied with him as his, is certainly an honor of no ordinary char- 
acter. In reference to this part of his life Mr. Pinckney fre- 
quently spoke of the deep diffidence and solemnity which he 
felt, being next but one to the youngest member of the body, 
whenever he addressed the Federal Convention. 

In all history there has been no stranger or more remark- 
able omission, in public memory no such lapse, as of Pinckney 's 
part in the Constitutional Convention. 

Two plans are always mentioned — the "Virginia," or Na- 
tional plan; the "New Jersey/' or State Supremacy plan. 



448 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

The former, with some frequency, has been said to be the 
work of Thomas Jefferson. He settles this himself in his let- 
ter, while President in 1802, to Joseph Priestly : 

''I was in Europe when .the Constitution was planned, and 
never saw it until after it was established. On receiving it I 
wrote strongly to Mr. Madison, urging the want of provision 
for the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial by jury, 
habeas corpus, and the substitution of militia for a standing 
army, and an express reservation to the state of all rights not 
specifically granted to the Union. He accordingly moved in 
the first session of Congress for these amendments, which were 
agreed to and ratified by the states as they now stand. This is 
all the hand I had in what related to the Constitution." 

There can be no doubt but that the revision of the Articles 
of Confederation had been discussed with him by the actual 
compiler of the "Virginia Plan," James Madison, during the 
anxious years preceding, as they more and more proved their 
own inadequacy. He was too great, too devotedly wrapped 
up in his country's destiny and his country's good not to have 
been consulted on a measure of such moment by the states- 
ment of any, and, above all, by those of his own state, but 
with the ''plan" submitted had nothing to do. 

Madison did not alone originate, but he did condense and 
express in this plan the consensus of the views of the great 
men who favored a better form of national government. 

Jefferson's fame — his greatness — ^needs no such borrowed 
plumage. 

Virginia was then the most prominent, populous and 
powerful state. Her favorite son was the favorite son — the 
i(jol — of all America. Another was the first President of the 
Continental Congress. Another then held that exalted station 
and was to be the last occupant of it. Another had proposed 
and another had prepared the immortal Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Another had thrilled every American heart with 
his burning eloquence, and inspired every loyal soul with the 
war cry, "Give me liberty or give me death." 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 449 

Her past, her present, her prominence and power gave 
prestige to every move she proposed. 

Madison, modest to a fault, weak of voice, retiring in dis- 
position, small of frame and stature, was of her younger and 
less known sons. His future was all in front of him. 

Edmund Randolph, the man of majestic presence, of splen- 
did voice, of lordly carriage, as governor, was the highest rep- 
resentative of this great state. The event, one of, if not the 
most, momentous in our history. To him, therefore, was con- 
fided the presentation of the plan as so prepared by Madison, 
and grandly did he discharge the duty. 

Hence it overshadowed the great work of Pinckney that 
more largely entered into the durable shape of the adopted 
Constitution. 

The ''New Jersey" plan, presented by William Paterson, 
was the unit of support by the smaller states, and those who 
from hereditary predilections favored a supreme state sov- 
ereignty, and feared the re-enthronement of a central 
despotism in a supreme central or national government. 

This gave it prominence. The two theories have ever since, 
probably always will, divide the opinions and sentiments of 
our people. 

Pinckney 's plan, the work of a man next to the youngest 
in that convention, and representing one of the smaller states, 
became absorbed in and swallowed up by the "Virginia" plan, 
and so his great part lost to memory. 

As a public speaker he was dignified, commanding and 
impressive. His eminent ability was accompanied and recom- 
mended by the remarkable persuasiveness and courtesy of his 
manner, and the invariable fairness of his arguments, and the 
justice which he never failed to render to an opponent. His 
voice was uncommonly clear, musical and sonorous. There 
were often times when he was very ardent, and impassioned 
and his speaking rose to the very highest order of eloquence. 
Hence his powerful influence as a public man. He was em- 
phatically the founder and for a long time the leader of the 
old Republican party of South Carolina. He warmly advo- 



450 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PRAMEES 

cated the abolition of the primogeniture laws. It was princi- 
pally owing to his influence and exertions in the convention 
which formed the South Carolina Constitution, that the civil 
and political disabilities which had all along previously been 
imposed upon the Hebrews were removed and no longer suf- 
fered to disgrace that state. As governor he first recommended 
the establishment of free schools in a message to the legisla- 
ture, in which he eloquently depicted the advantages of a gen- 
eral system of popular education. Nor was there any project 
or enterprise, generally speaking, of a patriotic or public 
spirited description, calculated to reflect honor on the state 
or to promote the welfare of the people, which did not find 
in him an enlightened friend and firm supporter. He was a 
man of great personal dignity. He was a delightful, convivial 
companion. His conversational powers were perhaps never 
excelled. There was a charm about him, which arose partly 
from his fascinating manners and his sweet musical voice, but 
principally, perhaps from the vast fund of knowledge, infor- 
mation and anecdote which he possessed, of almost every kind 
and character, and from the remarkable readiness, ease and 
power with which he could either impart instruction, enter 
into argument, or contribute to amusement. 

He was a man of high-toned sentiment and sterling in- 
tegrity, loved and admired by his friends, bitterly opposed and 
impugned by his enemies, and one whom his country always 
delighted to honor through all the vicissitudes of his varied 
and eventful life. 

He married Miss Mary Laurens, by whom he had three 
children, Frances Henrietta, who married Hon. Eobert G. 
Hayne, Daniel "Webster's opponent in the most famous debate 
in American history; Mary Eleanor, who married David Eam- 
sey, and Henry Laurens. 

The following plan of the Constitution that he proposed, 
when compared with the others and that adopted, will prove 
that it was the chief skeleton about which was built the body 
of the instrument that has grown in the regard of all man- 
kind, and that we fervently hope may endure for all time : 



THE FKAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 451 

(From Madison's Journal of the Federal Constitution.) 

Mr. Charles Pinckney laid before the House the draft of a Federal 
government which he had prepared to be agreed upon between the free 
and independent States of America, 

PLAN OF A FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 

We, the people of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, 
do ordain, declare, and establish the following Constitution, for the govern- 
ment of ourselves and posterity. 

Article I 

The style of this government shall be the United States of America, 
and the government shall consist of supreme legislative, executive and 
judicial powers. 

Article II 

The legislative power shall be vested in a Congress, to consist of two 
separate Houses; one to be called the House of Delegates, and the other 

the Senate, who shall meet on the day of in every 

year. 

Article III 

The members of the House of Delegates shall be chosen every year by 
the people of the several States and the qualifications of the electors in 
the several States for their Legislatures. Each member shall have been 

a member of the United States for years, and shall be of 

years of age, and a resident in the State he is chosen for. Until a census 
of the people shall be taken in the manner hereinafter mentioned, the 

House of Delegates shall consist of , to be chosen from the different 

States in the following proportions: For New Hampshire, ; for 

Massachusetts, ; for Rhode Island, ; for Connecticut, ; 

for New York, ; for New Jersey, ; for Pennsylvania, ; 

for Delaware, ; for Maryland, ; for Virginia, ; for 

North Carolina, ; for South Carolina, ; for Georgia, ; 

and the Legislature shall hereinafter regulate the number of Delegates by 
the number of inhabitants according to the provisions hereinafter made, 

at the rate of one for every thousand. All money bills of every 

kind shall originate in the House of Delegates, and shall not be altered 
by the Senate. 

The House of Delegates shall exclusively possess the power of impeach- 
ment, and shall choose its own officers, and vacancies therein shall be 



452 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

supplied by the executive authority of the State in the representation from 
which they shall happen. 

Article IV 

The Senate shall be elected and chosen by the House of Delegates ; 
which House, immediately after their meeting, shall choose by ballot 
Senators from among the citizens and residents of New Hampshire; 

from among those of Massachusetts; from among those of 

Ehode Island; from among those of Connecticut; from 

among those of New York; from among those of New Jersey; 

from among those of Pennsylvania; from among those of 

Delaware; from among those of Maryland; from among 

those of Virginia; from among those of North Carolina; 

from among those of South Carolina; and ■_ — from among those of 

Georgia. 

The Senators chosen from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ehode 
Island and Connecticut shall form one class; those from New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, one class; and those from Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, one class. 

The House of Delegates shall number these classes one, two and three; 
and fix the times of their service by lot. The first class shall serve for 

years; the second for years; and the third for 

years. As their times of service expire, the House of Delegates shall fill 

them up by elections for years; and they shall fill all vacancies 

that arise from death or resignation, for the time of service remaining of 

the members so dying or resigning. Each Senator shall be years 

of age at least, and shall have been a citizen of the United States for 
four years before his election, and shall be a resident from the State he 
is chosen from. The Senate shall choose its own officers. 

Article V 

Each State shall prescribe the time and manner of holding elections 
by the people for the House of Delegates; and the House of Delegates 
shall be the judges of the election returns and qualifications of their 
members. 

In each House a majority shall constitute a quorum to do business. 
Freedom of speech and debate in the Legislature shall not be impeached or 
questioned, in any place out of it; and the members of both Houses shall 
in all cases except for treason, felony or breach of the peace be free from 
arrest during their attendance on Congress and in going to and returning 
from it. Both Houses shall keep journals of their proceedings and publish 
them, except on secret occasions; and the yeas and nays may be entered 
thereon at the desire of one of the members present. Neither House with- 
out the consent of the other shall adjourn for more than days, nor 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 453 

to any place but where they are sitting. The members of each House 
shall not be eligible to, or capable of holding any office under that union, 
during the time for which they have been respectively elected; nor the 
members of the Senate for one year thereafter. The members of each 
House shaU be paid for their services by the States which they represent. 
Every bill which shall have passed the Legislature shall be presented to 
the President of the United States for his revision; if he approves it, he 
shall sign it ; if he does not ap^)rove it he shall return it, with his objec- 
tions, to the House it originated in, which House, if two-thirds of the 
members present, notwithstanding the President 's objections, agree to pass 
it, shall send it to the other House, with the President's objections, where, 
if two-thirds of the members present also agree to pass it, the same shall 
become a law. All bills sent to the President and not returned by him 
within days shall be laws where the Legislature, by their adjourn- 
ment, prevent their return, in which case they shall not be laws. 

Article VI 

The Legislature of the United States shall have the power to lay and 
collect taxes, duties, imports and excises. To regulate commerce with all 
nations, and among the several States: 

To borrow money and emit bills of credit; 

To establish postoffices; 

To raise armies; 

To build and equip fleets; 

To pass laws for arming, organizing and disciplining the militia of the 
United States; 

To subdue a rebellion in any State, on application of its Legislature; 

To coin money and regulate the value of all coins, and fix the standards 
of weights and measures; 

To provide such dock yards and arsenals, and erect such fortifications 
as may be necessary for the United States and to exercise exclusive juris- 
diction therein; 

To appoint a Treasurer, by ballot; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

To establish post and military roads; 

To establish and provide for a National University at the seat of 
government of the United States; 

To establish uniform rules of naturalization; 

To provide for the establishment of a seat of government for the 

United States not exceeding miles square, in which they shall have 

exclusive jurisdiction ; 

To make rules concerning captures from an enemy; 

To declare the law and punishment of piracies and felonies at sea, and 
of counterfeiting coin, and of all offences against the laws of nations; 



454 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

To call forth the aid of the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
er force treaties, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; 

Arid to make all the laws for carrying the foregoing powers into 
execution. 

The Legislature of the United States shall have the power to declare 
the punishment of treason, which shall consist only in levying war against 
the United States, or any of them, or in adhering to their enemies. No 
person shall be convicted of treason but by the testimony of two witnesses. 

The proportion of direct taxation shall be regulated by the whole num- 
ber of inhabitants of every description; which number shall, within 

years after the first meeting of the Legislature, and within the term of 

every year after, be taken in the manner to be prescribed by the 

Legislature. 

No tax shall be laid on articles exported from the States; nor capitation 
tax, but in proportion to the census before directed. 

All laws regulating commerce shall require the assent of two-thirds of 
the members present in each House. 

The United States shall not grant any title of nobility. 

The Legislature of the United States shall pass no law on the subject 
of religion, nor touching or abridging the liberty of the press; nor shall 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus ever be suspended, except in 
ease of rebellion or invasion. 

All acts made by the Legislature of the United States, pursuant to 
this Constitution, and all treaties made under the authority of the United 
States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and all judges shall be bound 
to consider them as such in their decisions. 

Article VII 

The Senate shall have the sole and exclusive power to declare war and 
to make treaties ; and to appoint ambassadors and other ministers to foreign 
nations, and Judges of the Supreme Court. They shall have the exclusive 
power to regulate the manner of deciding all disputes and controversies 
now existing, or which may arise, between the States, respecting jurisdiction 
or territory. 

Aeticle VIII 

The executive power of the United States shall be vested in a President 
of the United States of America, which shall be his style, and his title 

shall be His Excellency. He shall be elected for years, and shall be 

reeligible. 

He shall from time to time give information to the Legislature of the 
state of the Union and recommend to their consideration the measures he 
may think necessary. He shall take care that the laws of the United 
States shall be duly executed. He shall commission all the officers of the 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION 455 

United States and, except as to ambassadors, other ministers, and Judges 
of the Supreme Court, he shall nominate, and, with the consent of the 
Senate, appoint all other officers of the United States. He sjiaW receive 
public ministers from foreign nations, and may correspond with the 
executives of the different States. 

He shall have power to grant pardon and reprieve, except in impeach- 
ments. 

He shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United 
States, and shall receive a compensation which shall not be increased or 
diminished during his continuance in office. At entering on the duties of 
his office he shall take an oath faithfully to execute the duties of the 
President of the United States. 

He shall be removed from his office by the House of Delegates, and 
conviction in the Supreme Court, of treason, bribery, or corruption. In 
case of his removal, death, or resignation or disability, the President of 
the Senate shall exercise the duties of his oflBce until another President be 
chosen. And in case of the death of the President of the Senate, the 
Speaker of the House of Delegates shall do so. 

Article IX 

The Legislature of the United States shall have the power, and it 
shall be their duty to establish such courts of law, equity and admiralty 
as shall be necessary. 

The judges of the courts shall hold their offices during good behavior, 
and receive a compensation, which shall not be increased or diminished 
during their continuance in office. One of these courts shall be termed the 
Supreme "Court, whose jurisdiction shall extend to all cases arising under 
the laws of the United States, or affecting ambassadors, other public min- 
isters and consuls, to the trial of impeachment of officers of the United 
States, to all cases of admiralty, and maritime jurisdiction. 

In cases of impeachment, affecting ambassadors and other public min- 
isters, this jurisdiction shall be original; and in all other cases appellate. 

All criminal offences, except in cases of impeachment, shall be tried 
in the State where they shall be committed. 

The trials shall be open and public, and shall be by jury. 

Article X 

Immediately after the first census of the people of the United States, 
the House of Delegates shall apportion the Senate by electing for each 

State, out of the citizens resident therein, one Senator for every 

members; each State shall be entitled to have at least one member in the 
Senate. 



456 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

Article XI 

No State shall grant letters of marque and reprisal, or enter into 
treaty, or alliance, or confederation; nor grant any title of nobility; nor 
without the consent of the Legislature of the United States lay any imposts 
on imports, nor keep troops or ships in time of peace; nor enter into 
compacts with other States or foreign powers; nor emit bills of credit; 
nor make anything but gold, silver, or copper, a tender in payments of 
debts; nor engage in war, except for self defense when actually invaded, 
or the danger of invasion be so great as not to admit of a delay until the 
government of the United States can be informed thereof. 

And to render these prohibitions effectual, the Legislature of the United 
States shall have the power to revise the laws of the several States, that 
they may be supposed to infringe the powers exclusively delegated by this 
Constitution to Congress, and to negative and annul such as do. 

Article XII 

The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and im- 
munities of citizens in the several States. Any person charged with crimes 
in any State, fleeing from justice to another, shall on demand of the execu- 
tive of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, and removed to the 
State having jurisdiction of the offense. 

Article XIII 

Pull faith shall be given in each State to the acts of the Legislature 
and to the records and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates 
of every State. 

Article XIV 

On the application of the Legislature of a State, the United States shall 
protect it against domestic insurrection. 

Article XV 

If two-thirds of the Legislatures of the States apply for the same, the 
Legislature of the United States shall call a convention for the purpose 
of amending the Constitution, or, should Congress, with the consent of 
two-thirds of each House, propose to the States amendments to the same, 
the agreement of two-thirds of the Legislatures of the States shall be 
sufficient to make the said amendments parts of the Constitution. 

The ratification of the conventions of States shall be 

sufficient for organizing this Constitution. 

Ordered, that the said draft be referred to the Committee of the Whole 
appointed to consider the state of the American Union. 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION 457 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 

Charles Cotesworth Pmekney was born at Charleston, 
South Carolina, February 25, 1746, and there died August 16, 
1825. 

His father, Charles Pinckney, was chief justice of South 
Carolina. 

At seven years of age he was sent to England to be edu- 
cated, and passed up from Westminster to Oxford, and then to 
the Temple where he completed his law course, thereupon tak- 
ing a course in the Royal jVIilitary Academy at Caen, France. 

After an absence of sixteen years he returned to Charleston 
in 1769, became attorney-general of the state, and in 1775 a 
member of the first provincial congress, by which he was com- 
missioned a captain and soon after colonel. After the gallant 
defense of Fort Moultrie he joined the northern army, and 
served as aide to Washington at Brandywine and German- 
town. 

In 1778 he rejoined the army of the South and took part 
in the unsuccessful expedition to Florida. 

In 1779 he was president of the senate of South Carolina. 

Again returning to the army, he displayed great courage 
and military skill in a rapid march against Gen. Prevost that 
saved Charleston from capture by that commander, and took 
a gallant part in the invasion of Georgia and the attack upon 
Savannah. 

In the siege of Charleston in 1780 he was at first in com- 
mand of Fort Moultrie, but returned to the city to help sustain 
the siege. 

In the council of war he voted "for the rejection of all 
terms of capitulation, and for continuing hostilities to the last 
extremity." 

On the surrender of Charleston he was taken prisoner, and 
kept in rigorous confinement for two years. During this time 
his son died, and the severities of his imprisonment were 
increased. Instead of subduing, this intensified his patriotic 
devotion. His answer to his captors, "My heart is wholly 



458 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

American, and neitlier severity, nor favor, nor affluence, nor 
poverty can ever induce me to swerve from it," illustrated the 
unselfish loyalty that achieved our independence. 

While serving as one of the three special envoys to France, 
in the effort to effect a reconciliation and avert the war im- 
pending' between the two countries, he was informed that the 
use of money would secure the object of the mission of our 
envoys. His reply, ' ' Millions for defense, but not one cent for 
tribute," spoke the manly sentiment of the American heart, 
and has been a watchAvord from that day to this. 

Pinckney began his career in the Eevolutionary War as a 
volunteer, and closed it as a major-general. When war was 
impending with France President Adams appointed Wash- 
ington commander-in-chief, at his instance, Hamilton senior 
major-general, and Pinckney major-general, second to Ham- 
ilton. Some partial friend complained to Pinckney of this 
inferiority in rank. His lofty and unselfish spirit of patriotic 
devotion burst forth in: "Let us first dispose of our enemies; 
we shall then have leisure to settle the question of rank." 

Washington offered him, at different times during his 
administration, and he declined the positions of associate jus- 
tice of the supreme court of the United States, secretary of 
state and secretary of war. He was efficient in the preparation 
of the Bill of Rights and the constitution of South Carolina. 
He was the first president of the board of trustees of the 
College of South Carolina ; for fifteen years the president of 
the Charleston Bible Society; and a dcA^oted worker in the 
Christian and educational upbuilding of his state. Of him 
Charles Chauncey said : 

''Plis love of honor was greater than his love of power, and 
deeper than his love of self." 

Theodore Eoosevelt, in his "Life of Gouverneur Morris," 
he was "The ablest member of the brilliant and useful but 
unfortunately short-lived school of South Carolina Federal- 
ists." 

He was as ardent a Federalist as his cousin, Charles 
Pinckney, was a Democrat; was a candidate for Vice-President 



THE FKAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 459 

in 1800, and for President in 1804 and again in 1808; and was 
third president of the Society of the Cincinnati. 

He is claimed to be the anthor of the clanse in the constitu- 
tion forbidding that a religious test be made for any office 
under our government. He wished United States senators to 
serve without salary, and that body to represent the property 
interests of the country, holding that the senate should be 
composed of persons of wealth and above the temptations of 
poverty. During one of the sessions of the convention, 
Pinckney said he had himself prejudices against the eastern 
states before this, but must acknowledge that he had found 
their representatives as liberal and candid as any men what- 
ever. This honest confession of one of the most eminent of 
American statesmen shows the educating development of the 
convention upon its members, and teaches a lesson that should 
be cherished. The contact and communion of the people of 
the different states have ever taught the oneness of our people 
and the baseless foundation of sectional prejudices. 

John Rutledge 

John Rutledge was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 
1739, and there died July 30, 1800. 

His father, Dr. John Rutledge, an Irish physician, came to 
Charleston in 1734, married a girl of fortune, who at fifteen 
was the mother of the boy who became the immortal Framer, 
and who at twenty-six was left a widow with seven children, 
he the eldest. "Well might this noble mother, like the Roman 
Cornelia, point to her sons, John, the Framer, congressman, 
governor, chief justice of his state and the United States ; and 
Edward, signer of the Declaration of Independence, offered 
and declined a seat as Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, and borne to his tomb from the governor's chair 
of South Carolina, and say, "these are my jewels" — jewels 
that forever crown the brow of herself and her country. 

After an excellent classical education, John Rutledge spent 
three years at the world's most famous law school, the Temple, 
London. What an imposing array of talent then glorified 



460 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PRAMEBS 

English history, and prepared and prompted this ambitious 
youth to high exertion! Mansfield was presiding on the 
King's bench. Henley, afterward Lord Nottingham, was Lord 
Keeper of the Privy Seal. Pralt, afterward Lord Chancellor 
and Earl of Camden, was Attorney-General. Burke was 
beginning that renowned career that the whole world honors. 
Thurlow was rising to his splendid, enduring fame. 

No idle listener to these learned men was John Rutledge. 
He bent every energy of a born ability to his books, to earnest 
attention to these great legal and forensic luminaries, and was 
admitted as a barrister, but returned to begin his professional 
life in Charleston in 1761. His first case was one for breach 
of promise. The proverbial and characteristic gallantry of the 
southerner lent its lofty inspiration to the gifted young man, 
his eloquence thrilled the astonished court and audience, and 
he leaped at one bound to the front of the bar. 

In 1765 he was a delegate from South Carolina to the 
Stamp Act Congress. His part in that body gave him a 
national reputation as an orator, and patriot. Though the 
youngest member of it, he was made the chairman of the 
committee to prepare the memorial and petition to the British 
House of Lords. 

For the next ten years he devoted his energies to the 
largest law practice in his state. 

In 1774 he was a delegate to the first Continental Congress, 
in which during the two years that he was a member he 
became one of the most distinguished members. Patrick Henry 
pronounced him "by far its foremost orator"; Washington, 
the greatest that he ever heard. 

When these delegates were appointed, united official action 
by the colonies being a new proposition, the question arose 
what powers should be conferred upon them as to binding 
their state. He insisted that they be given fullest discretion 
and unlimited power to pledge the people of South Carolina to 
abide by whatever the delegates should agree to. Some one 
asked, what must be done in case the delegates made a bad use 



THE FEAMEKS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 461 

of their powers? His prompt answer, as many of his laconic 
sentences, rang like a cannon shot: "Hang them!" 

In March, 1776, the province of South Carolina adopted a 
state constitution, and established an independent state gov- 
ernment. He was elected president of the state and com- 
mander-in-chief of its forces. Early in June the British fleet, 
commanded by Sir Peter Parker, appeared before Charleston. 
In this crisis his ability as an organizer, his energy and 
decision, won the admiration of the Avhole country. Within 
a few days he had gathered and equipped an army of some six 
thousand men. On Sullivan's Island a rude fort of Palmetto 
logs was built, of which the famous Gen. Moultrie was in com- 
mand, and which since bears his honored name. Gen. Charles 
Lee, the only man ever known to provoke Washington to 
cursing him, which he bears the infamous memory of having 
done by his pusillanimous conduct at the battle of Monmouth, 
said this fort was a slaughter pen, and directed its evacuation. 
Lee had been sent to command the Continental troops in the 
South. Rutledge wrote Gen. Moultrie, "Gen. Lee wishes you 
to evacuate the fort. You will not without an order from me. 
I would sooner cut off my right hand than write one." His 
battle spirit was up. He followed the note with an additional 
supply of powder. June 28, 1776, the battle came on. The 
British were defeated. But one vessel of Sir Peter Parker 
escaped uninjured. His flag-ship was the slaughter pen, on 
which the former royalist governor of South Carolina, Lord 
William Campbell, received a mortal wound. This victory 
freed South Carolina from being overrun by the British for 
the next two years, sent a thrill of exultant encouragement 
through the hearts of the whole country, and raised Rutledge 
to a lofty eminence as an able and courageous patriot com- 
mander. 

The effect of this victory had far wider, more lasting results 
upon the fate of this country, and for free government, than 
in the resounding fame of Rutledge. The Declaration of 
Independence was trembling in the balance. Samuel Adams 
and his patriot colleagues were pleading for it, enthralled and 



462 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

hampered by numerous state instructions against it, and the 
apparently wise conservatism of the equally patriotic, but 
more prudent members of congress. The echoes of the vic- 
torious guns from that rude palmetto fort reached the congress 
at Philadelphia, the warm breezes of the South bore to its 
members the valiant ardor of their southern brethren, and 
added new courage to the impulse for freedom. As we look 
back in historic light, who can say but that the tireless energy, 
the wise sagacity, the dauntless courage of John Rutledge in 
the preparations that made possible — aye, secured this victory, 
gave the needed encouraging, inspiring enthusiasm that 
prompted our fathers to pass that immortal declaration, and 
crown him with the brightest laurels as a founder of our free 
government as well as a framer of its constitution. 

What a thrill of joy must have filled his patriotic heart 
when he heard that that declaration had been made, for he and 
Samuel Adams had been the first men to advocate entire sepa- 
ration from Great Britain — the first to unhesitatingly advocate 
independence for the colonies when the first congress met two 
years before. 

In 1778 he was chairman of the South Carolina convention 
that framed the state 's new constitution ; and was elected the 
first governor under it. During the ensuing two trying years 
he made great and constant exertions to repel British in- 
vasions, to defend Charleston, and to procure the aid of con- 
gress and from Georgia and North Carolina to revive the 
legislative and judicial powers of the state that had become 
disorganized and almost abandoned under the stress of British 
attacks. 

In 1780 Charleston fell, and the legislature disbanded. In 
that dark hour it looked doubtful if it would ever meet again. 
Before adjourning it vested him with absolute power, save to 
take the life of a citizen without a jury trial. For this the 
British and Tories stigmatized him "Dictator John." 

South Carolina was overrun by the British, Rutledge driven 
from the state, and Gen. Gates defeated. Not for one moment 
did he despair, not for one moment abandon hope or relax 



THE FRAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 463 

heroic effort. He commissioned the gallant Sumter brigadier- 
general ; gave added rank to the heroes, Pickens and Marion ; 
and secured a commission from congress for the intrepid 
Morgan. When Gen. Greene arrived, instead of a dispirited 
and disorganized band of despondent Americans, he found 
Morgan with his trusty riflemen eager for battle under Gates, 
and organization everywhere apparent. 

After the battle of Cowpens, Gen. Greene wrote describing 
the disheartening condition of affairs over which Rutledge had 
triumphed, and said : 

"We are obliged to subsist ourselves by our industry, aided 
by the influence of Gov. Rutledge, who is one of the first 
characters I ever met." 

His course in exercising and disposing of the dictatorial 
powers conferred upon him evince his splendid character, and 
republican virtues, and leave a lasting lesson to his country- 
men. Not one complaint was ever preferred against him for 
the arbitrary exercise of those powers. When South Carolina 
was rescued from invasion in 1782, he, at once, assembled the 
legislature, stated that such powers were too great to be vested 
in any man in a free country, except in case of the direst 
extremity, and surrendered his unstained authority to the 
assembly that gave it. 

Soon after he was returned as a delegate to the Continental 
Congress ; and the next year was appointed by it minister to 
Holland, but declined the honor. 

Men of such eminent ability and ample experience as he 
were sought by every state, and he was sent by his state, with 
its other most illustrious sons, to perform the great work of 
framing our country's constitution. In that convention he 
took a leading part, was chairman of its committee of detail, 
and in the preparation of the clauses relating to the national 
judiciary exercised a powerful influence. One of his proposi- 
tions, however, that failed of success was to have congress 
elect the President. In the South Carolina convention to pass 
upon ratifying the Constitution there was strong opposition to 



464 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

SO doing, and it was largely due to his efforts and influence 
that it was ratified. 

From this time his career was almost wholly judicial. He 
had the reputation of being one of the most learned, con- 
scientious and able of the judges of the country. 

In 1787 he was appointed chancellor of the High Court of 
Chancery of South Carolina. In 1789, upon the organization 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, he was appointed 
its senior justice, his commission following that of Chief 
Justice John Jay. In 1791 he resigned this position upon his 
election as chief justice of the supreme court of South Caro- 
lina. When Chief Justice Jay resigned in 1795, "Washington 
immediately nominated him for chief justice. But a few days 
before notice reached him in Charleston of the honor, he had, 
in a public speech, made a bitter attack upon the "Jay 
Treaty," denounced it in severest terms, and protested against 
its ratification by Washington and the United States Senate. 
Either this, or what was charged to be mental infirmity due to 
his exposure in the South Carolina swamps during the Revo- 
lutionary War, made the senate refuse to confirm the nomina- 
tion, and he sat as chief justice but one term. 

He married Miss Elizabeth Grimke, to whom he was de- 
votedly attached, and whose death in 1792 he never recovered 
from. She was a woman of superior virtues of head and heart, 
her loss to him irreparable. They reared six sons and two 
daughters. 

He was described as: 

"Tall, well-formed, and robust; his forehead broad; his 
eyes dark and piercing; his mouth indicated firmness and 
decision; his hair, combed back according to fashion of the 
day, was powdered and tied behind. His aspect was resolute 
and wore an expression of thought and determination. His 
feelings were warm and ardent, he had an impulsive energy, 
which, however, was controlled by a vigorous common sense. 
Earnestness was the secret of his power; the supreme element 
of his character was "force." His ideas were clear and strong; 
his utterance rapid, but distinct ; his active and energetic man- 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 465 

ner of speaking forcibly impressed his sentiments on the mind 
and heart ; and he successfully used both wit and argument in 
his impassioned style of public address.". 

While his rank was high as a jurist ; while he held the most 
exalted positions on the bench his state and nation could con- 
fer upon him, hi^ fame chiefly rests upon his remarkable abili- 
ties and accomplishments as an orator. 

The historian, Dr. Ramsay, says: 

"In the friendly competitions of the states for the com- 
parative merits of their respective statesmen and orators, while 
Massachusetts boasts of her John Adams, Connecticut of her 
Ellsworth, New York of her Jay, Pennsylvania of her Wilson, 
Delaware of her Bayard, Virginia of her Henry, South Caro- 
lina rests her claim on the talents and eloquence of John 
Rutledge." 

From Georgia 

Abraham Baldwin 

A band of emigrants in 1639 found a beautiful location on 
Long Island Sound, some fifteen miles east and thirty-five 
miles south of New Haven, bought the surrounding lands from 
the Indians, and there founded the town of Guilford, Con- 
necticut. While it was stipulated in the deed of purchase that 
the Indians should remove at once, and the friendly dealing 
promised peace, the founders built a two-story stone house to 
serve as a fortress, if need required, and it yet stands a monu- 
ment to the precaution of the fathers against the perils of the 
days long past. 

There, on November 6, 1754, was born Abraham Baldwin, 
Guilford's most distinguished son, son of Lieutenant Michael 
Baldwin, the North Guilford blacksmith. 

He graduated at Yale in 1772, where he was a tutor from 
his graduation to 1777. From that time until the close of the 
war he was a chaplain in the Continental army. 

In 1784, at the instance of General Nathaniel Greene, who 
had located there, he removed to Savannah, Georgia, and 
entered upon the practice of the law. 



466 THE CONSTITUTIOiSr AND ITS FEAMERS 

His talents met with immediate recognition, and the same 
year he was sent to the state legislature, and began that con- 
spicuous public career which closed twenty-four years later 
while a leading member of the United States Senate, 

In the legislature he originated the plan for the University 
of Georgia, drew up the charter by which it was endowed with 
forty thousand acres of land, and over considerable opposition 
secured the passage of the measure. 

From the preamble of this charter, which has evoked en- 
comiums from the learned, shows the God-fearing spirits of the 
founders of the republic so blessed by that God, and whose 
lesson we may well forever heed, the following is an abstract : 

"As it is the distinguishing happiness of free governments 
that civil order should be the result of choice and not of neces- 
sity, and the common wishes of the people become the laws of 
the Icind, their public prosperity and even existence very much 
depend upon suitably forming the minds and morals of their 
citizens. When the minds of the people in general are viciously 
disposed and unprincipled, and their conduct disorderly, a free 
government will be attended with greater confusions and evils 
more horrid than the wild, uncultivated state of nature. It can 
only be happy when the public i')rinc'iples and opinions are 
properly directed, and their manners regulated. This is an 
influence beyond the reach of laws and punishments, and can 
be claimed only by religion and education. It should, there- 
fore, be among the first objects of those who wish well to the 
national prosperity to encourage and support the principles of 
morality and religion, and early to place the youth under the 
forming hand of society, that by instruction they may be 
moulded to the love of virtue and good order." 

He was afterwards president of the university for several 
years. 

In 1785 he entered the congress of the confederation and 
continued a member until that congress was changed into the 
congress of the United States. 

He not only took an active part in the labors of the Con- 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 467 

stitutional Convention, but upon his action and vote hung the 
most momentous crisis of its existence. 

How the states should be represented, and their representa- 
tives should vote in the national congress, had narrowed down 
to two plans, one the "Virginia" plan, for two houses, wherein 
the representatives should vote as individuals, but should be 
chosen from the states in proportion to wealth or population. 
This meant the overthrow of the equality of the states, and the 
supremacy of the more wealthy, and more populous. 

The other the ''New Jersey" plan, for one house, wherein 
the vote should be cast by states, without regard to population 
or wealth. 

This meant an equality of power on the part of the states 
weakest in wealth and population with the strongest, which 
the latter were a unit in opposing. At that time Georgia, Bald- 
win 's state, was one of the smallest in wealth and population, 
and his interest lay in the equal power of such. His ante- 
cedents, his hereditary convictions, were for state equality, 
regardless of conditions. 

The convention was on the verge of dissolution. If this took 
place all hope for union was gone forever. 

Says Fiske of Mr. Baldwin : 

"His state was the last to vote, and the house was hushed 
in anxious expectation, when this brave and wise young man 
yielded his private conviction to what he saw to be the para- 
mount necessity of keeping the convention together. All honor 
to his memory!" 

Baldwin 's vote made the ballot a tie, when Roger Sherman 
and Oliver Ellsworth introduced the compromise, called the 
"Connecticut" plan, whereby the representatives should vote 
as individuals, but the states have equality of representation 
in the senate, according to population in the house, which was 
agreed upon, and the calamity of the convention dissolving 
without proposing a constitution was averted. 

His prominence in that great body is further shown in his 
being placed upon the committee on detail, and of the com- 



468 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

mittee to which the convention referred everything relating to 
the choice of president. 

On one point he stood with his constituents so that the 
wretched question that ended in civil war was not then set- 
tled, and years of angry contention ending in a sea of precious 
blood, if not evils yet to come, averted by following the lead 
of Virginia's greatest statesmen. 

When the question of prohibiting the slave trade came 
before the convention he declared that Georgia would not 
confederate if not allowed to import slaves. 

He was sent by Georgia, from 1789 to 1799, to the National 
House of Representatives; from 1799 to his death, March 4, 
1807, to the United States Senate. 

Twice he was chosen president pro tempore of the senate, 
and held that exalted station at the time of his death at the 
early age of fifty-three. 

He was identified with many measures of lasting im- 
portance during these first eighteen years of our nation's 
history, notably that locating the seat of government on the 
Potomac. 

It is one of the most remarkable instances in our legislative 
history, probably without a parallel, and speaking volumes for 
his industry and fidelity, that during all these years he never 
missed an hour during the sessions of congress until the week 
preceding his death. 

Of him the poet, Joel Barlow, wrote : 

"The annals of our country have rarely been adorned with 
a character more venerated, or a life more useful, than that of 
Abraham Baldwin." 

Colonel Richard Malcolm Johnson said: 

"He was the greatest man who ever lived in Georgia. In 
some respects he was superior to Jefferson. His educational 
plans were far-reaching in their scope. Justice has never been 
done to his great merits." 

He was a bachelor ; a man of consistent piety and extensive 
benevolence. After the death of his father in 1787, he took 
charge of his six half brothers and sisters and educated them. 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 469 

One of these, Henry Baldwin, became a noted lawyer, a 
distinguished member of congress, a justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and an author of celebrity on the 
"Origin and Nature of the Constitution and Government of 
the United States." 

Through his aid many young men of humble means in 
Georgia were enabled to obtain an education and achieve use- 
ful citizenship. 

One of Georgia's counties perpetuates his honored name. 

In purity of private and public life, in unselfish service to 
his country and his family, in wise provision for the culture of 
his adopted state, in constant industry and consummate ability 
he was worthy of a place among the framers of our country's 
Constitution. 

William Few 

William Few was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, 
June 8, 1748, and died at Fishkill, New York, July 16, 1828. 

His ancestors came to America with William Penn. During 
his early childhood his father removed to North Carolina. His 
educational opportunity was limited to but little over a year 
at the public school. This but whetted his appetite for learn- 
ing, and he was noted when a boy for reading every book he 
could get access to, and his earnest attention to the arguments 
of lawyers in the courts which he often attended. 

Removing to Georgia, he rendered gallant service during 
the revolutionary war as colonel of a Georgia regiment. AfteT 
the war he located at Augusta, Georgia, and entered upon the 
practice of law. His abilities and character received early 
recognition in his appointment as a member of the governor's 
council, his repeated election to the state legislature, and to 
his election to the convention that framed the Georgia Con- 
stitution. 

He held almost every office in the gift of the people of 
Georgia, except that of governor, his life being one of con- 
tinuous public service, unsought by him, but exacted by them, 
as shown by the following remarkable record. 



470 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

In 1777 he was a member of the Georgia Legislature and 
Executive Council; 1778, surveyor-general and senior justice 
for Richmond County; 1779, colonel in the Continental Army, 
commissioner to treat with the Indians, and member of the 
legislature ; 1780, delegate to the Continental Congress, and 
specially sent by that congress to assist in the reconstruction 
of the Georgia state government; 1782 and 1786, delegate to 
the Continental Congress; 1783, member of the Georgia Legis- 
lature; 1785, trustee of the University of Georgia; 1787, dele- 
gate to the Federal Constitutional Convention; 1788, member 
of the Georgia convention that unanimously ratified the Con- 
stitution; 1789 — 1793, United States senator from Georgia; 
1793, mem.ber of the Georgia Legislature; 1796, judge of the 
Georgia Circuit Court. 

In 1799 he removed to New York City. In that state he 
soon achieved most honorable distinction. From 1801 to 1804 
was a member of the New York Legislature, commissioner of 
loans, inspector of New York state prisons, and commissioner 
to treat with the Indians ; 1813 — 1814, alderman of New York 
City; 1804 — 1814, director of the Manhattan Bank of New 
York ; 1814, president of the New York City Bank. 

He also took an active and influential part in the building 
of the Erie canal, and the promotion of education and advance- 
ment of science throughout the state of New York. 

His excellent judgment, extended information and irre- 
proachable character endeared his memory to the people of the 
two great states he served so well, while his eminent financial 
ability made of him an important factor in their commercial 
prosperity. Like nearly all of the great characters of this era 
of remarkably great men he was a man of profound piety and 
lifelong Christian activity. 

His illustrious career is one of the many inspiring lessons 
to American youth of the pluck and perseverance that con- 
quers adversity and triumphs over poverty. This poor boy, by 
his own self-education, by his own unaided efforts, rose from 
obscurity to render lasting service to two of our greatest 
states, and to our common country. All honor to his memory ! 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION, 471 

William Houstoun 

William Houstoun was born in Savannah, Georgia, about 
the year of 1755. 

He was the son of Sir Patrick 'Houstoun, baronet, a promi- 
nent officer under the royal government in Georgia; was edu- 
cated in England, and graduated in law at the Inner Temple 
in 1776, 

His brother, John Houstoun, was one of the first delegates 
Georgia sent to the Continental Congress; elected governor in 
1778 and again in 1784, and chief justice of that state in 1786, 

He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1784 to 
1787; was an officer in the revolutionary army; in 1785 boun- 
dary commissioner to settle the line between Georgia and 
South Carolina; one of the original trustees of the land 
granted as an endowment of the University of Georgia ; and 
one of the vice presidents of the Society of the Cincinnati. 

But little of his record has been preserved beyond the fact 
that he was an able lawyer and prominent man of his day, and 
there is no record of when or where he died. 

While attending congress he took great offense at some 
remarks made by a delegate from Rhode Island, which he took 
as reflecting upon the people of the South, and the next morn- 
ing appeared in congress armed with a sword. His friends 
persuaded him to cool his impetuous wrath and return his 
sword to his room. 

It was upon his motion, supported by Roger Sherman and 
Gouverneur Morris, that the clause first reported to fix the 
President's term at seven years and prohibit re-election was 
stricken out. He took a very active part in the Constitutional 
Convention, opposed the electoral college, favored the election 
of President by popular vote, and advocated the revision of 
the constitutions of the several states. Imperative business 
called him from the Constitutional Convention, and prevented 
him from signing the Constitution to which he gave such 
hearty support, both in that convention and in the conven- 
tion of his state called to pass upon its ratification. 



473 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

William Pierce 

William Pierce was born in Georgia, in 1740, and died at 
Savannah, December 10, 1789. 

He received a liberal education and was a merchant in 
Savannah. He took sin active part in the revolutionary war, 
rose to the rank of major, and was for a while an aide-de-camp 
of General Nathaniel Greene. For gallantry at the battle of 
Eutaw he was presented with a sword by congress and was 
given a memorial of its complimentary resolution. After the 
war he resumed business at Savannah, and was head of the 
house of William Pierce & Company. He served several terms 
in the Georgia Legislature, and was a delegate to the Con- 
tinental Congress in 1786-1787. Called to New York by press- 
ing business, he failed to sign the Constitution, but in a letter 
published in the Georgia Gazette March 20, 1788, explaining 
his unavoidable absence in New York, and consequent inability 
to sign the Constitution, he urged its ratification by Georgia. 

In the convention he advocated the election of representa- 
tives by the people, sena,tors by the states, but desired the 
terms of senators to be three years. 

He was not only a man of signal business ability, but of 
considerable literary talent and a frequent contributor to the 
press, as was the custom of the time, on public and political 
questions. 



The influence and efforts of Baldwin, Few, Houstoun, and 
Pierce gave this ' ' Empire State ' ' of the South the honor of 
being one of the three states that unanimously ratified the 
Constitution. 



James Madison never missed a day's attendance upon the 
Constitutional Convention. No member gave a more diligent 
study of both measures and men. Of the members he wrote: 

"I feel it mj'- duty to express my profound and solemn con- 
viction, derived from my intimate opportunity for observing 
and appreciating the views of the convention, individually and 
collectively, that there never was an assembly of men charged 



THE FEAMEES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 473 

with a great and arduous trust who were more pure in their 
motives, or more exclusively and anxiously devoted to the 
object committed to them, than were the members of the 
Federal Convention of 1787 to the object of devising and pro- 
posing a constitutional system which should best supply the 
defects which it- was to replace, and best secure the permanent 
liberty and happiness of their country." 

No more cultured, experienced, distinguished and able body 
of men ever joined in a united convention in the history of any 
nation. Every member of it, as but partially shown, had 
served in state or national positions of trust and honor. There, 
were men who had been honored by and had influenced, if not 
led, the culture of European courts ; who had come into inti- 
mate and official contact with the most famous diplomats, 
statesmen, and monarchs in the adjustment of delicate and 
momentous matters of state. There, were men who had braved 
the perils of the field in the battles that won our independence. 
There, were men who had been judges, legislators, and edu- 
cators in their colonies and states. There, were men who had 
enjoyed the culture and learning of the best universities of the 
new and the old worlds. There, were men who had been bred 
to the study of government, and whose lives had been crowded 
with the experiences that so rapidly educate in positions of 
great honor and responsibility. The past achievements of many 
were the prefaces to chapters, of subsequent renown in the 
service of the new republic. All demonstrated the possession 
of marked ability, and the vast majority showed a purity of 
character that has additionally endeared their memories. There 
were no dreamers. They were practical men of practical ex- 
perience, who appreciated to the fullest the momentous re- 
sponsibility of the work at hand, and brought to it all the 
solemn earnestness of men striving to secure and establish 
forever principles for which they had devoted and risked their 
lives. 

In all great American epochs, Providence has seemed to 
raise up men for the crisis. The great question of free gov- 
ernment was at stake, and here, to preserve, to found it, were 



474 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

lavished the calmness of judicial learning, the fiery vigor of 
military ardor, the drilled capacity of successful financiering, 
the polish of professional attainment, the schooled finesse of 
diplomacy, the best culture and character of the country. 

These men builded wiser than they knew. The Providence 
that the aged Franklin besought smiled upon them. Their 
work, they thought, did not meet the measure of their hopes, 
their intentions, their efforts. It was too near at hand to view 
its magnitude. It encountered opposition from some who had 
joined in it, but those who opposed it did so with as sincere a 
patriotism, as ardent a love of liberty and humanity, as those 
who supported and secured its ratification by the people whom 
they represented. But under the plastic hands of great ex- 
pounders the value of this great work, its flexibility, its 
capacity to meet the growing needs and changed conditions of 
the most marvelous career in all the history of nations, has 
been a constant marvel. 

The constitution has been and will be the study of the ages. 
It has been the guide, not only of this nation in its perilous 
career and unparalleled progress, but of every republic that 
has since overthrown a throne. Over eighteen hundred amend- 
ments have been proposed, but only fifteen adopted, and ten of 
those may be considered parts of the original. The constitu- 
tion has grown in the reverence of the learned and the un- 
learned, as the sheet anchor of the liberties of a free people, 
whose strain is never felt, yet which holds their rights secure 
in every storm. 

This is the estimate, not only of our own ablest countrymen, 
but of the most renowned students, statesmen, and historians 
of the age in other lands. Said England 's great premier — her 
"Grand Old Man," William E. Gladstone: 

"As far as I can see the American constitution is the most 
wonderful work ever struck off at one time by the brain and 
purpose of man." 

England's eminent historian, James Anthony Froude, says: 

"The problem of how to combine a number of self-govern- 
ing communities into a single commonwealth, which now lies 



THE FEAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 475 

before Englishmen, who desire a federation of the empire, has 
been solved, and solved completely, in the American Union. 
The bond which at the Declaration of Independence was looser 
than that which connects Australia and England became 
strengthened by time and custom. The attempt to break it 
was successfully resisted by the sword, and the American 
republic is, and is to continue, so far as reasonable foresight 
can anticipate, one and henceforth indissoluble." 

Well may we garland the names and memories of its 
framers with the everlasting homage of what promises to be 
the greatest nation the world has ever known ! AVell may we 
teach our children to emulate their virtues! Well may we 
make their histories familiar in every home, and their lives the 
examples of the citizens, native or foreign, who enjoy the 
blessings of the government they founded on such an enduring 
basis ! 

Their aim was an indestructible union of indestructible 
states, as Chief Justices Marshall taught and Chase held it to 
be,^ The indestructibility of the states has been conceded from 
the first. The indestructibility of the Union has been declared 
in judicial decisions, has been sealed in the blood of internal 
struggle, and has more and more become unquestioned for the 
future as being the life of the nation. 

Each henceforth holds its lasting sphere — the United States 
supreme in its powers (powers that are limited, but the 
authority under them unlimited), and the states in their orbits 
around this central power, sovereign in their domestic controls 
and supreme in their local concerns. 

That constitution, holding in its strong embrace — its ever- 
lasting grip — the rights of states and peoples that are common 
to all, that at the same time extends to each community the 
home rule that is cherished there and yet guarantees the gen- 
eral laws that each needs, let us now briefly consider, with the 
fixed purpose to make of it a lifelong study. 



^TJ. S. Supreme Court Eeports. Chief Justice Marshall: Barron vs. 
Mayor and City of Baltimore, 6 Peters, 243; MeCullousjh vs. State of 
Maryland, 4 Wheaton, 316. Chief Justice Chase: Texas vs. White, 7 Wal- 
lace, 700, page 725, 




CHAPTER XVI 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

PEEAMBLE 

^E, the People of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 
provide for the common defence, promote the general wel- 
fare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
United States of America. 

This preamble uttered a combined proclamation and 
prophecy, but more of prophecy than proclamation. As orig- 
inally prepared, it read, ''We, the people of the states of," 
naming all the states. The objection was made that some of 
the states might not adopt it. Ehode Island was not repre- 
sented in the Constitutional Convention at all, and that state 
and North Carolina did not adopt the constitution until after 
the government had been organized and Washington was 
elected president. 

The advocates of the league, or state supremacy theory, 
have made prominent the fact of the change in the preamble, 
and have strenuously contended that it was not intended by 
the convention. They say that the re-reference of the first 
draft to the "Committee on Style and Arrangement," was 
solely for revision as to the style of expression; and that 
Gouverneur Morris was allowed to do the revising, because 
that accomplished statesman was preeminent in the art of 
elegant diction. They argue that in this manner, -without the 
intention of the convention, the present wording of the pre- 
amble was reached. 

If it were admitted that the change was made simply for 
the purpose of euphonious phrasing, it must also be admitted 
that with the growth of the national theory has grown the 

476 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITES STATES 477 

doctrine of the supremacy of the people, until none to-day 
denies that the constitution is not a mere compact between the 
states, but that it is the instrument of "We, the people of the 
United States." But, as we have seen, there were many other 
substantial changes made by that committee. They were made 
for an understood purpose, and with a definite and intended 
meaning. The members of that committee were adepts in the 
art of expression. They weighed well the use of every word, 
studied and counted upon its significance. They would not 
have sacrificed intention to euphony. None knew better than 
they that their work was too serious, too weighty for the mere 
polish of phraseology. That they knew what they meant, and 
meant what they said, is shown by the interpretation put upon 
those words by the leaders of both those who opposed and of 
those who favored the adoption of the constitution. 

Messrs. Lansing and Yates, subsequently chief justices of 
the supreme court of New York, Luther Martin, the erratic but 
able attorney-general of Maryland, and the others who left the 
convention during its session, did so on the express ground 
that it was exceeding its authority when it attempted to go 
beyond the mere amendment of the Articles of Confederation, 
that made a mere compact between the states, and entered 
upon the construction of a constitution creating a government 
for the people of all the states as a unit. 

Of the forty-two men who remained to the end, the three 
who refused to sign the constitution assigned as the principal 
objection to affixing their signatures thereto the same reason 
that was given by Messrs. Lansing, Yates, and Martin. 

Patrick Henry, in opposition, in the Virginia convention, 
said: "Have they said, 'We, the states?' Have they made a 
proposal of a compact between the states? If they had, this 
would be a confederation; it is otherwise most clearly a con- 
solidated government. The question turns, sir, on that poor 
little thing, the expression, 'We, the people,' instead of 'The 
states of America.' " 

William Samuel Johnson, the chairman of this committee 
on revision, in addressing the Connecticut convention, having 



478 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

discussed the difficulties attending, and the objections to 
legislating for states in their capacity as sovereign states, said : 
"They have, therefore, gone entirely upon new ground. They 
have formed one new nation out of individual states." 

James Wilson, subsequently a justice of the supreme court 
of the United States, by common repute the ablest constitu- 
tional lawyer in the convention, advocating the adoption of the 
constitution before the Pennsylvania convention said: "This is 
not a government founded upon compact. It is founded upon 
the power of the people. This system is not a compact or a 
contract. The system tells you what it is; it is an ordinance 
and establishment of the people." 

The supreme court of the United States, in one of its 
earliest decisions, when all was fresh in the minds of its living 
framers, and of its ratifiers said: "The constitution of the 
United States was ordained and established not by the states in 
their sovereign capacity, but emphatically, as the constitution 
declares, by 'The people of the United States.' " 

Nor does the character, mental and moral, of the men con- 
stituting that revision committee, warrant the belief that they 
would have delegated their supremely important work to any 
one man. The internal evidences of the constitution of this 
committee contradict this claim. It is far from the intent of 
this contention to abate one iota from the debt of regard due 
for the inestimable services and eminent qualifications of 
Gouverneur Morris. His splendid qualifications, his rare 
scholarship, his native and acquired abilities were of the high- 
est order, and his aiding work entitled him to that prominent 
place in the galaxy of American greatness that will always be 
accorded him. 

That committee was composed of William Samuel Johnson, 
chairman; James Madison, Gouverneur Morris, Alexander 
Hamilton, and Rufus King. 

Mr. Johnson was a son of a college president ; and was him- 
self the president of the same college. He had his scholarship 
and literary skill recognized eleven years before by the con- 
ferring of the degree of D.C.L. by the University of Oxford, 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 479 

England. He won the admiration of England and America for 
his erudition. He was born and reared in the upper atmos- 
phere of literary culture, was an eminent lawyer, and one of 
the foremost writers of his day. 

James Madison had been the prime legislative mover for the 
constitution, and, aside from his part in that literary classic, 
the Federalist, shows by his immortal state papers, that he was 
one of the most forceful, finished, and prolific authors of that 
or any other period in our history. 

Alexander Hamilton stands in universal estimation almost 
unrivaled in the art of composition. It needs not Thomas 
Jefferson's tribute, when he denounced Hamilton as "That 
veritable Colossus in artful wording" to establish Hamilton's 
reputation as a master mind in the phraseology of constitu- 
tional construction. Then his constant, historic, and herculean 
efforts to bring about the construction and adoption of the 
constitution could not have permitted him to neglect or over- 
look the slightest part of his duty in this, the supreme purpose 
of his life. It must have stimulated his marvelous intellectual 
energies to the very utmost of their exertions in the final 
phrasing of this cherished instrument of his early hope and 
life-long devotion. 

Rufus King had done all in his power to obstruct the 
meeting of this convention, but redeemed himself by his part 
in the construction of the constitution and its subsequent sup- 
port. His conversion could have been brought about only by 
the most thoughtful consideration. This governor, senator, 
vice-president, minister so long to the cultured court of Eng- 
land, the author of that part of the ordinance of 1787, whose 
wording became the wording of the Thirteenth Amendment to 
the constitution in our own enlightened day; this man a Har- 
vard graduate whose finished scholarship made him an orna- 
ment to the exalted stations he filled for nearly half a century, 
added his trained culture to this committee of born and bred 
intellectual capacity and mental achievement. 

Such combination of scholarship did not need to, and could 
not have delegated its duty to any one superior to it. It 



480 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

represented and embodied the conflicting differences of opinion 
and sentiment of the convention whose proceedings had reached 
such an acute stage that dissolution with defeat of its object 
and purpose of assemblage was imminent. At such a critical 
juncture, every word in every clause of every provision was 
scanned with redoubled caution. The greatest efforts of the 
ablest were to allay all antagonisms, and by the most thought- 
ful compromise and concession to construct a constitution upon 
which all could unite. The committee of revision realized that 
it constituted tlie final committee for the final work of that 
convention. At a time of such moment, with issues so vital 
depending, not a member could have shirked or delegated a 
single duty. 

More than that, the work of this committee was reported to 
the convention on September 12th, and it was debated with all 
the intense earnestness of a last opportunity until the 17th of 
September. This, and the other serious changes could not have 
escaped attention. On the 17th, the last change in the pro- 
visions, along the very lines of the change in the preamble, was 
made for the benefit and protection of the people. This was 
done by unanimous consent, on the only appeal that Wash- 
ington publicly made during the entire proceedings. That was 
to increase the representation from the people from one to 
every forty thousand to one for every thirty thousand. He 
said : 

"That although his situation had hitherto restrained him from offering 
his sentiments on questions pending in the House, and it might be thought, 
ought now to impose silence upon him, yet he could not forbear expressing 
his wish that the alteration proposed might take place. It was much to be 
desired that the objections to the plan recommended might be made as 
few as possible. The smallness of the proportion of Eepresentatives had 
been considered by many members of the Convention, as an insufficient 
security for the rights and interests of the people. He acknowledged that 
it had always appeared to himself among the exceptionable parts of the 
plan, and late as was the present moment for admitting amendments, he 
thought this of so much consequence, that it would give him great satisfac- 
tion to see it adopted." 

Washington was watching for the interests of the people. 
jMore and more, as the discussions in the convention progressed, 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 481 

were its members convinced of the importance of the people, 
the wisdom and necessity of providing for the people, instead 
of merely for bodies politic. Their language and their pro- 
visions show that they were looking to and looking out for the 
people — that the wording of the preamble was intended ; was 
in consonance with other parts of the constitution, wherein the 
people's rights and powers were placed, reserved and held 
above all others. 

Still, they did not dream of the democracy of to-day; of 
the full import of the purposeful words used. Yet, they 
builded wiser than they knew. A higher Avisdom, the wisdom 
of Him who created all on His foot-stool with equal inalienable 
rights, was making them the instruments for the uplifting and 
disenthrallment of humanity. An unseen Hand guided the 
pen, an unseen Eye was looking through that language adown 
the ages to time, when in its full fruition this government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people, should lead the 
nations of the earth to the universal brotherhood of a law- 
observing world — a world governed by the people who shall 
possess it. 

The constitution made this national government, not a gov- 
ernment of states and principalities; not a government of the 
rich and able; not a government of a few born to rule over 
their fellows, but the apotheosis of the peoples' power. The 
people are possessed with this idea. They will cling to it for- 
ever. Therein is its permanence assured. Nevertheless, they 
will cling with equal tenacity to the local, or state autonomy, 
that leaves to each distinct community the supreme control of 
its domestic affairs, and makes these states as sovereign in 
their reserved jurisdiction as if no sovereign nationality bound 
them in indissoluble unity. It is this complex, yet composite 
system that makes, alike supreme, national, and home rule. 

The first and third clauses of Section 10, of the 1st Article, 
Clause 2 of Article 6, the Ninth Amendment, and the Tenth 
Amendment settle all question as to the supremacy of the 
national government ; the inability of the states to compact or 
confederate with each other, independent of or against that 



482 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

government; the derivation from and obligation to the people 
of the government, and the recognized supreme rights and 
powers of the people thereunder. These clauses show beyond 
contravention the intended significance of the words, ''"We, the 
people of the United States." 

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 

Article I. — Section 1 

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of 
the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

Legislative power is the power to make laws. While mem- 
bers of both houses are congressmen, and are paid the same 
salary, it is the custom to call members of the house of repre- 
sentatives ''congressmen," though their proper title is "repre- 
sentatives." In the same way, the two bodies are designated 
as "house," and "senate." The experience of England, as 
well as of the colonies, induced the change from the one house 
of the confederation to the two houses of the United States. It 
is more difficult to corrupt or manipulate two houses than one. 
Each is a check upon the other. They insure more mature and 
reflective consideration of laws than one house would give. 
The experience of the civilized world has demonstrated the 
many advantages of legislation by two houses, and having the 
houses composed of different classes of men, with different 
terms, or periods of office, and with some of their duties and 
responsibilities entirely different. 

Section 2 

[Clause 1.] The House of Representatives shall be composed of mem- 
bers chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the 
electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of 
the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 

In every nation where two legislative bodies exist, as in 
ours, the lower and larger house is considered the house of the 
people. The term of office provided in the constitution is not 
long enough for the representative to lose the feeling of 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 433 

responsibility to his constituents, and enables the people to 
make early changes, if desired. If the representative is satis- 
factory, he can be kept in office; if not, he can be soon 
replaced. 

At the time of the adoption of the constitution almost every 
state required a property qualification for the voter. In two 
this was graded. The voter had to possess a certain amount 
of property to vote for governor ; a smaller amount to vote for 
a member of the council, or upper house of the legislature ; and 
a less amount to vote for a member of the lower house of the 
legislature. Therefore, to give the largest number of the 
people a voice in their government, this provision was adopted. 

[Clause ^.] No person shall be a representative who shall not have at- 
tained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of 
the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of 
that State in which he shall be chosen. 

Naturalized as well as native citizens are eligible to con- 
gress. This provision requires citizenship long enough to 
become acquainted with the needs and character of our gov- 
ernment, and an age that should have gained some experience 
fitting for legislation. It leaves to the states to decide how 
long one must have been a resident in each to be eligible for 
office. 

It is the custom to divide the states into congressional dis- 
tricts, and to elect a resident of each district to represent that 
district in congress, but it would be lawful to elect a resident 
of one part of a state to represent a district in another part, as, 
for instance, a resident of Cairo, Illinois, might be elected to 
represent a district in Chicago. 

[Clause 3.] Eepresentatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned 
among the several States which may be included within this Union, accord- 
ing to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the 
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term 
of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. 
The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first 
meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent 
term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number 
of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each 



484 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

State shall have at least one representative: and until such enumeration 
shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose 
three; Massachusetts, eight; Ehode Island and Providence Plantations, one; 
Connecticut, five; Nevp York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; 
Delaware, one; Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; North Carolina, five; South 
Carolina, five; and Georgia, three. 

The *' three-fifths of all other persons" mentioned in the 
first sentence meant slaves. The framers of the constitution 
were unwilling to have that word in the constitution. The 
majority of them, and especially those from what was then the 
largest and most influential state, Virginia, desired slavery's 
gradual abolition. While not a member of the Constitutional 
Convention, Thom.as Jefferson was a great leader in political 
thought, and he said, "There is nothing more certainly written 
in the book of fate, than that some day these people will be 
free," and one proposed clause of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence written by him, denounced the fostering of the slave 
trade, but it was stricken out. 

This counting of only three-fifths of all slaves has been 
changed by the abolition of slavery, and by the second clause 
of the Fourteenth Amendment. Ilepresentation is now based 
upon, not the number of voters, but the entire population — 
men, women, and children — excluding only Indians not taxed. 

While a greater representation than one for every thirty 
thousand of the population cannot be had, each state must have 
at least one representative. This is why some of the smaller 
states have but one representative, and two senators. 

But few direct taxes, and those only in time of war, have 
ever been laid by the national government, but when laid, have 
been, and always must be laid so as to make the burden equal 
on all the people, regardless of state lines. This is one of the 
proofs of this being a national government, a government of 
the people and by the people, wherein there is an equality of 
support by the people whose government it is. 

[Clause 4.] When vacancies happen in the representation from any 
State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill 
such vacancies. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 435 

Notice the difference of the wording of this clause and. the 
third clause of the next section. Eepresentatives are elected 
"from" the states; senators, "for" the states. The former are 
especially the representatives of the people; the latter, espe- 
cially of the states. It is typical of this complex, yet composite 
system of our government wherein, as the motto of the state of 
Illinois expresses it, "State Sovereignty — National Union," are 
inseparably interblended. 

The governor of a state cannot fill a vacancy in the repre- 
sentation for the people, as he can in the representation for 
the state. He can commission a senator to fill a vacancy,' as 
will be shown, but not a representative. Nor is it left optional 
with him to fill such a vacancy. He must order an election. 
The people are entitled to representation, and it is made 
obligatory upon him to afford them the opportunity to be 
constantly represented. 

[Clause 5.] The House of Eepresentatives shall choose their Speaker 
and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

To preserve its independence it is necessary that the house 
of representatives should create, regulate, and control its own 
working machinery. 

The speaker presides over the house, and has the exclusive 
power to appoint all of its committees. No member can address 
the house unless the speaker recognizes him ; that is, calls him 
by name and gives him permission to address it. 

His power of appointment of committees, and his liberty to 
recognize, or not recognize, members who wish to address the 
house, make him one of the most powerful, if not the most 
powerful, officer of our government. He is elected from and by 
the members of the house of representatives of each congress ; 
that is, he is elected every two years. He enjoys the same 
salary as the vice-president, $12,000 per year. 

Impeachment is the written accusation charging some 
public offense by an executive, or judicial officer. It may be 
criminal, or simply political. Executive and judicial officers 
are removable only by impeachment. The house of representa- 



486 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

tives prefers these accusations in what are called articles of 
impeachment. It appoints a special committee to prepare and 
present these articles to the senate, and another special com- 
mittee to prosecute the offender when the senate sets a time 
for his trial thereunder. 

Section 3 
The Senate of the United States 

[Clav^e 1.] The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; 
and each senator shall have one vote. 

It was considered that the legislature would be better 
acquainted with the necessary qualifications for this high office 
than the people at large. The senate was designed to repre- 
sent, not merely the states, but the property interests of the 
country — to stand as a shield between property and populace. 
It stands for the equality of the states, yet senators vote as 
individuals, as representatives of the whole people. 

Many of the duties of the senate, as will be seen, necessitate 
a longer term of office than that of representative, and besides 
the senate was intended to be a permanent body. The entire 
house of representatives could be changed every two years, 
leaving no one in the new house familiar with its mode of 
legislation from practical experience. This the term and man- 
ner of electing senators prevent. 

[Clause 2.'] Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence 
of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the 
expiration of the second year; of the second class, at the expiration of the 
fourth year; of the third class, at the expiration of the sixth year, so that 
one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by 
resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, 
the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next 
meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

So fearful were the framers of the constitution of long 
terms of office and of the natural tendency to despotic rule 
engendered thereby, that they provided that one-third of the 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 487 

senate could be changed every two years, yet so done as to 
retain tried experience at all times. This gives the people au 
opportunity to change, yet prevents impulsive action on their 
part. 

The senator, in an especial sense, being regarded as the 
representative of the state, the governor is empowered to fill 
vacancies while the legislature is not in session, but he is not 
compelled to do so. If he does, the commission of the senator 
expires as soon as the legislature meets. 

[Clause 3.1 No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained 
to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for 
which he shall be chosen. 

The senate being designed to be a more stable and con- 
servative body than the house, a greater age and period of 
residence is required for a senator than for a representative. 
The word "senator" means older. The purpose was to com- 
pose the senate of the ablest, most experienced statesmen in 
the country. Its great men have justified the hope and ex- 
pectation of the framers. 

[Clause 4.] The Vice-President of the United States shall be president 
of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

Not being a member of the senate, or elected to legislate, 
to give the vice-president a vote would give one state three 
votes, instead of two ; give that state an unfair advantage, and 
would be unfair to the people who choose our national legis- 
lators. Yet, as the senate will always be composed of an even 
number of senators, the probability of being evenly divided 
upon important questions was very great, and, therefore, the 
vice-president was empowered to break the deadlock by giving 
the deciding vote on such occasions. 

[Clause 5.] The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a 
president pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he 
shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 

This gives the senate the same independence as to its 



488 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

machinery for action as the house of representatives. It is 
now customary for the vice-president to retire for a short while 
at the first session of every congress, and for the senate then to 
elect a president pro tempore, who, for the next two years, pre- 
sides in the absence or disability of the vice-president. 

[Claiise C] The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach- 
ments: when sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. 
When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall 
preside; and no person shall be con\icted without the concurrence of two- 
thirds of the members present. 

At such times it acts as both judge and jury, and like them 
is put under oath or affirmation. The interest of the vice- 
president, he being the lawfuj successor, if the president bo 
convicted, precludes his sitting as an impartial officer and, 
therefore, the highest judicial officer in the country who can 
have no possible interest in the result, so far as promotion per- 
sonally is concerned, is chosen to preside over this august 
tribunal. While the verdict must not be unanimous, as with 
juries, partisan action is guarded against by requiring a two- 
thirds vote to convict. 

[Clause 7.] Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further 
than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party con- 
victed shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judg- 
ment, and punishment, according to law. 

Since impeachment relates solely to unfitness for official 
duties, the great right of trial by jury for crimes is preserved. 
No right has ever been regarded more sacred by the Anglo- 
Saxon than the right of trial by jury. Edmund Burke said the 
great end of government was to get twelve honest men in a 
jury box. 

The judgment of the senate can only have political effect, 
and extend to removal from and disability to enjoy any office. 
But if the offense should be a crime, as murder, which would 
make tlie perpetrator an unfit person to hold office, he could 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 489 

be removed, and still indicted, tried, and convicted, as any 
other malefactor. 

The object was manifestly to enable unfit and arbitrary 
ofificers to be removed from and kept out of the public service, 
yet not to allow a legislative conviction to deprive one of life 
or liberty ; and, on the other hand, not to bar the state from 
visiting just punishment for criminal offenses, after giving the 
citizen the fundamental right of a jury trial therefor. 

Section 4 
Both Houses 

[Clause i.] The times, places, and manner of holding elections for sen- 
ators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legisla- 
ture thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

Each state is left to maintain its representation in the 
national legislature as it deems best, but for self-preservation 
the congress can arrange for its being kept up, if a state 
becomes refractory and refuses to send representatives, or its 
governing officers refuse to give the people an opportunity to 
select them. The offense to the dignity of the state is avoided 
in the disability of congress to choose any other place than that 
chosen by the state for the election of senators. Except as to 
that, the congress can make or revise the laws that the several 
states make for such elections. 

[Clause f.] The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, 
and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they 
shall by law appoint a different day. 

Taught by history how despotic monarchs had often pre- 
vented the assembling of legislatures, and had forced their 
arbitrary dissolution when assembled, and remembering their 
own grievous experience under British rule, the framers could 
only adopt this imperative rule for annual sessions of congress. 
Under it, our president cannot prevent the assembling of con- 



490 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

gress, and he has no power to dissolve it. This clause makes 
certain the perpetual rule of the people. 

The same day of assembling is yet preserved, but congress 
can change that day at any time. It cannot change the obliga- 
tion for annual assembling. 

Section 5 
The Houses Separately 

[Clause 1.] Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and 
qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute 
a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to 
day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, 
in such manner, and under such penalties, as each house may provide. 

This is a still further provision for the independence of 
the congress, and of each house thereof. No other department 
of the government is allowed to pass upon the elections, 
returns, and qualifications of the members of either house, nor 
can either house interfere with the other in that regard. 

A quorum is that number of the members of a body required 
to be present to enable it to transact business. This clause 
prevents a minority from legislating, yet enables that minority 
to compel the work and duty of legislation by compelling mem- 
bers to attend, and punishing them for failure to perform their 
official duties. 

[Clause ^.] Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, 
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of 
two-thirds, expel a member. 

This is a plain and simple provision whereby decorum can 
be preserved, and unfit members be ousted. This, too, is an 
essential part of the independence of both houses. No court 
can be called upon to reverse the action of either house in such 
cases. Requiring the concurrence of two-thirds to expel a 
member is a good precaution against partisan action. 

The method of procedure in the two houses is alike in many 
respects, yet radically different in others. 

The speaker is the absolute master in the appointment of 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 49I 

committees in the house; and prolonged debate can be pre- 
vented there by moving the previous question. 

The senate forms its own committees, and the vice-president 
simply announces them. He has no voice in or control over the 
appointment of committees. 

The previous question is never moved in the senate ; any 
member can debate a question as long as he wishes. There 
have been many instances where a single senator has coerced 
the senate into voting for some pet measure in order to stop his 
oratory and proceed to consider important general measures. 

[Clause 3.] Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and 
from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their 
judgment require secrecy, and the yeas and nays of the members of either 
house on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be 
entered on the journal. 

This is not only an historic necessity, but is designed for 
the information of the people. It is their supreme and most 
important right to know precisely what their representatives 
are doing. A small number can require every member to go on 
record, so that one cannot vote for a vicious measure and 
conceal it from the people. Only the proceedings of executive 
sessions can be kept secret, and no legislation is done in such 
sessions. 

[Clause 4.] Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, with- 
uut the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

This prevents either house from hindering legislation on 
account of taking umbrage at the action of the other, and 
compels all legislation at the one place. 

Section 6 
Privileges and Disabilities of Members of Congress 

[Clause 1.] The senators and representatives shall receive a compensa- 
tion for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury 



492 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and 
breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at 
the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from 
the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be 
questioned iii any other place. 

Congress fixes the salaries of its own members. No limit 
is put upon this power. Its exercise is left to the honor and 
discretion of the congress. The members are not left dependent 
on the states, as by the Articles of Confederation. They are 
national officers, and made independent of the states. This is 
another proof of the national character of our government. 
Paying their salaries, the national government can secure the 
services of the poor as well as of the rich. The national gov- 
ernment as well as the people being entitled to their services, 
only the commission of the serious offences named can subject 
them to arrest. For the same reason, their salaries cannot be 
attached or garnisheed for debt. 

The needs of legislation demand plain speech in many 
instances, and no member can ever be sued for what he says 
in any speech or debate in either house. The government 
secures his independence by clothing him with absolute im- 
munity from question in any other place, except in the house 
of which he is a member. 

[Clause .?.] No senator or representative shall, during the time for 
which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority 
of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments 
whereof shall have been increased, during such time; and no person holding 
any office under the United States, shall be a member of either house during 
his continuance in office. 

This is done to prevent members of congress from creating 
new and lucrative offices for their own benefit ; or adding to the 
emoluments of one they have prospect or promise of succeed- 
ing to. 

Since the foregoing comment in the first edition of this 
book, the oversight of this clause has had illustration. During 
the administration of President Roosevelt the salaries of Cabi- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 493 

net officers were increased to $12,000 per annum. Philander C. 
Knox was at the time of such increase a Senator for Pennsyl- 
vania, his term not expiring until 1911. When President Taft 
nominated him for Secretary of State in 1909, his ineligibility 
under this clause prevented his confirmation by the Senate, 
until the increase in the salary of the Secretary of State was 
repealed by Congress, leaving the salary attached to that 
office, as formerly, $8,000, while all of the other members of 
the Cabinet receive the increased salary. 

The duties of this one exalted place of honor are enough to 
tax the physical and mental energies of the ablest, and they are 
compelled to give those duties their undivided attention. Then, 
too, if able to hold more than the one office, their very positions 
would offer undue opportunities to the unscrupulous. The peo- 
ple and the government demand unselfish as well as indepen- 
dent action on the part of their lawmakers. 

Section 7 

[Clause i.] All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of 
Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments 
as on other bills. 

In England, the House of Lords, their upper house, cannot 
amend a bill for raising revenue ; that is the exclusive preroga- 
tive of the house of the people there. Our system is more gen- 
erous with our upper house. The power of amendment makes 
the provision practically useless. 

[Clause S.'] Every bill which shall have passed the House of Eepre- 
sentatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to 
the President of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if 
not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall 
have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and 
proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that 
house shall agree to pass the bill it shall be sent, together with the objec- 
tions, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if 
approved by twQ.-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all 
such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, 
and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be en- 



494 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

tered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be 
returned by the President within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall 
have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he 
had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, 
in which case it shall not be a law. 

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate 
and House of Eepresentatives may be necessary (except on a question of 
adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and 
before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being dis- 
approved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of 
Eepresentatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the 
case of a bill. 

These provisions insure a triple examination of all laws. 
First, by the house where the law, or measure, originates ; then, 
by the other house; then, by the thoughtful consideration of 
the President. 

His disapproval is termed a veto. Out of respect for his 
mature and intelligent judgment, two-thirds of both houses 
must concur to pass a measure over his veto. If he is opposed 
to the measure, yet averse to exercising this serious preroga- 
tive, he can let the measure become a law without his approval, 
unless congress, by its adjournment, prevents its return within 
the ten days named. 

Where political parties are nearly equal, this puts a formid- 
able power in the hands of the President. But he cannot exer- 
cise that power without giving his written reasons therefor, 
which, as seen, must be made a matter of permanent and public 
record, and thereby make his conduct subject to historic judg- 
ment. 

Section 8 

Powers Expressly Given to Congress 

Powers are of two classes — express and implied. The for- 
mer, those named in express terms; the latter, what the com- 
mon law and judicial decisions have settled as a necessary part 
to enable these express powers to be made effective, but not 
named in the wording of the express powers granted. 

The Articles of Confederation distinctly denied all implied 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 495 

powers to the national organization, and reserved to the states 
all powers not expressly granted to that organization. This 
was one of its principal defects. 

[Clause 1.] The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, 
duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common 
defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, 
and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. 

This power is an essential of any government. Govern- 
ments can no more li^'e without money than individuals, and 
can only raise it in the manner prescribed, or by force, and 
without regard to law. Taxes are an assessment upon the per- 
son, called a capitation tax, or upon property and are the share 
the person and owner should contribute to pay the expenses of 
the government. Duties and imposts are about the same ; are 
what must be paid on goods and merchandise brought into a 
country, or shipped from it. Excises are assessments on cer- 
tain articles of home manufacture, such as liquors and tobacco, 
and for special necessity in time of emergency, as war, licenses, 
stamps on documents, merchandise, etc. 

The government must raise this money for but two distinct, 
but very broad, purposes — the common defense and general 
welfare. Nor can it make these different in different states ; 
they must be uniform, that is, the same throughout the whole 
country. 

[Clause S.] To borrow money on the credit of the United States. 

But for this power all money for public buildings and other 
improvements ; for immediate, or extraordinary expenses, as 
for war ; indeed, for every purpose would have to be raised by 
immediate taxation. It is not just that one generation should 
pay for what is to be enjoyed and be for the benefit of future 
generations, and in this way the burden can be distributed so 
as to oppress none. Experience has shown this power to be an 
essential of every government, and as every useful power, to be 
liable to abuse, and to be carefully watched. 



496 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

It is an international law, that every succeeding govern- 
ment, whether peaceful or revolutionary, must assume and pay 
the debts of its predecessor. 

[Clause 3.] To regiilate commerce with foreign nations, and among 
the several States, and with the Indian tribes. 

The constitution contains no more important provision than 
this. Under it, tariffs for revenue or protection are laid ; privi- 
leges given the American ship-owner over the ship-owner of a 
foreign country; our foreign commerce regulated and pro- 
tected; and our interstate commerce given the security and 
freedom it enjoys. 

Our history shows how each state, during the confederation, 
regulating commerce for itself with foreign nations, and 
against every other state wrecked both our foreign and inter- 
nal trade, and was fast dragging the states to the verge of war 
with each other. 

Suppose every train, ship, or boat had to stop at every state 
line, give an account of its passengers and freight, and a duty 
had to be paid on all merchandise before it could enter the ad- 
joining state, what a ruinous effect it would have on the busi- 
ness of this country. So, too, if each state had to protect its 
own commerce with foreign nations, how powerless to protect 
its people engaged in trade against the powerful nations 
abroad, and what confusion in the different tariffs adopted. ' 

As long as a railroad, or any system of transportation is 
kept within the state line, the national government has no con- 
trol, whatever, over it, but once it passes that line into another 
state it becomes interstate commerce, and the national govern- 
ment can both regulate passenger and freight rates, make them 
equal for every traveler and shipper, and prevent any hin- 
drance to their ready and safe transit. 

If a foreign nation interferes with or oppresses the com- 
merce of any state, or lays hostile tariffs against articles pro- 
duced or manufactured in that state and sent abroad, the na- 
tional government can make retaliatory tariffs against such 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 497 

articles coming from that country to this, and thus see that the 
American merchantman is done justice there. All our reci- 
procity and other commercial treaties come under this clause. 
It empowers the interstate commerce act, yet in its infancy, but 
one of the most important and far-reaching laws known to 
recent legislation. 

The Indian tribes are considered the wards of the nation, 
and, therefore, belong to its especial care and control. 

[Clause 4.] To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform 
laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States. 

It will be seen that, by the Fourteenth Amendment, the 
constitution declares what has always been the right of the na- 
tional government under that constitution to make citizens. 
It has no power to make voters. That power belongs, exclu- 
sively, to the states, and but one prohibition is put upon it, as 
will be shown. 

When a foreigner becomes naturalized, he renounces all 
allegiance to his native land, and becomes a citizen of this, with 
all the rights of a native-born citizen, except to hold the office 
of president or vice-president. He is then entitled to the same 
protection, even if he return to his native land, as a native-born 
American. He must be protected by the national government 
in the enjoyment of the same privileges and immunities in 
every state that- he enjoys in the state where he lives. A uni- 
form rule of naturalization is, therefore, a national necessity. 

So, uniform rules on the subject of bankruptcies prevent 
any state, by its special and peculiar insolvent law, from giving 
a preference to the creditors of that state over creditors in an- 
other state, when a man fails and his property should be appor- 
tioned to pay all alike. 

[Clause 5.] To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. 

[Clause 6.] To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securi- 
ties and current coin of the United States. 

If each state could coin money, or regulate the value thereof 



498 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

and of foreign coin, we would have as many different kinds of 
coin and values as there are states. As to weights and meas- 
ures, there might be the same confusion. The currency of uni- 
form value that we enjoy in every state, and its standard with 
the nations of the whole earth, attest the efficiency of this 
power. The business of the country simply could not endure a 
diverse, or different system, either as to money, or weights and 
measures. 

Power to punish the counterfeiting thereof follows as a 
necessary sequence. It is unlawful to print, or even to paint 
on a board a fac simile of the currency of the United States. 

In the District Court of the United States, at Chicago, one 
who painted a fac simile of the currency of the United States 
on a board was convicted of violation of the law as to counter- 
feiting. 

[Clavse 7.] To establish post-offices and post-roads. 

To this is due the most efficient and extended postal system 
in the world. 

[Clause 5.] To promote the progress of science and useful ai-ts, by se- 
curing, for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to 
their respective writings and discoveries. 

Under this, laws have been enacted giving to authors a 
copyright, whereby they have the exclusive right to publish 
and sell their productions for twenty-eight years, with the 
privilege of the renewal of such right by the author, his widow, 
or children for fourteen years more. 

Patents are letters issued to inventors. They give the ex- 
clusive right to make and sell the patented article for seven- 
teen years. There is no privilege of renewal of a patent. 

This great constitutional power has made this the greatest 
inventive and manufacturing, as well as the greatest literary 
nation on the globe. 

[Clause 0.] To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 499 

This empowers congress, not only to establish judicial 
tribunals, but semi-judicial, such as boards of arbitration, to 
settle controversies. 

[Clause lO.] To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on 
the high seas, and offences against the law of nations. 

By "high seas" is meant the uninelosed waters of the ocean 
below low water mark. Beyond low water mark no state has 
jurisdiction, and the national government must be responsible 
to foreign governments for the acts of our citizens. Unless it 
could punish its citizens for felonies thereon, crimes could be 
committed on the high seas with impunity. 

[Clause 11.] To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and 
make rules concerning captures on land and water. 

The president cannot, as kings can, declare war. That sol- 
emn act is the exclusive prerogative of congress. 

Letters of marque and reprisal are written authority from a 
nation to its citizens to take the vessels of another nation, or of 
the citizens of another nation. These letters may be issued 
when war does not exist between the two nations, as indemnity 
for the people injured by the offending citizens of the other 
nation. Such taking and appropriating of the private property 
of citizens of a foreign power as indemnity for the wrongs of 
their fellow-citizens Mnth which they have had nothing to do, 
is happily growing into disuse, and being condemned by the 
world powers. 

[Clause IS.I To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of 
money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. 

This is a nation of peace. This is intended that the people 
may end a war to which they are opposed, by returning a con- 
gress that will refuse money to maintain it. No appropriation, 
even for our regular army, can be made for a -longer period 
than two years. 



500 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

[Clause 13.] To provide and maintain a navy. 

As it takes much time to build a navy, appropriations there- 
for may be for a longer period, for an indefinite period. 

[Clause Id.] To make rules for the government and regulation of the 
land and naval forces. 

As both are under the control of the national government, 
this necessity naturally follows. 

[Clause IS.] To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. 

[Clause 16.] To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the 
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the 
service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the 
appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia accord- 
ing to the discipline prescribed by congress. 

The maintenance of the state militia enables this country to 
keep up the smallest standing army of any of the world powers. 
It is smaller, even, than the standing army of Mexico. 

By having uniform rules and discipline, in event of war a 
large body of disciplined troops can soon be put in the field. 
The troops from every state would be familiar with the uni- 
versal regulations. History shows that nothing is more dan- 
gerous to itself than an undisciplined army. 

To develop state ability and state independence, it is left to 
the states to train and officer the militia under the rules pre- 
scribed by congress. 

The supreme court has decided that it is the province of the 
President to decide when a necessity exists to call forth the 
militia to "execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrec- 
tions, and repel invasions, ' ' not of the state authorities. 

[Clause 17.] To exercise exclusive legislation in all eases vphatsoever 
over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of 
particular states, and the acceptance of congress, become the seat of govern- 
ment of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places 
purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 501 

shaU be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other 
needful buildings. 

This gives congress exclusive legislation over the District of 
Columbia. All of the municipal affairs of the city of "Washing- 
ton are conducted under the authority of the congress. 

In the same manner, all of the national forts, military reser- 
vations, buildings, etc., are as much under the exclusive control 
of congress as if not located in the state where they are. 

[Clause 18.] And to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper 
for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in 
any department or oflScer thereof. 

No broader clause exists in the constitution, or one that has 
evoked more debate. Under it was chartered the first national 
bank in our history, during the administration of Washington. 
The question of the constitutionality of establishing such bank 
divided his cabinet. Hamilton and Kjiox, respectively secreta- 
ries of the treasury and war, favored it ; and Jefferson and 
Randolph, respectively secretary of state and attorney-general, 
opposed it. 

The present system of national banks was organized under 
this authority. So also were what are known as "greenbacks," 
the currency of the United States, made legal tenders. 

It will be seen that the states are prohibited from making 
anything but gold and silver a legal tender, but no such posi- 
tive prohibition exists as to congress. The constitutionality of 
making "greenbacks" a legal tender divided the supreme 
court, and the question provoked much feeling in the country. 

It is important to know that national bank notes are not a 
legal tender. If there is a dispute about a debt and the debtor 
tenders what he considers due, and the creditor sues, but re- 
covers no more than the amount tendered, he must pay all the 
costs of the suit. So it may become necessary to tender the 
amount agreed to be paid for land, or merchandise, to enable 
the purchaser to enforce the trade. This tender must be made 



502 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMEES 

in either "greenbacks," gold, or silver, or there will be no law- 
ful tender. 

This clause confirms every implied power that custom, 
usage, or judicial decisions establish as belonging to the fore- 
going express powers granted to congress. 

Section 9 
Powers Denied to the United States 

Great as this government is, it is not one of unlimited pow- 
ers. There are rights of the citizen and of the people, some of 
them fundamental in their nature, others based upon public 
policy, that are enthroned above the powers of the government 
itself. 

The principal purpose of a constitution is to protect the peo- 
ple, not merely from the tyranny of those selected to rule over 
and make laws for them, but the most dangerous and heartless 
of all tyrannies — the tyranny of the majority. This is tran- 
sient, impulsive, and partisan. The people — even the humblest 
of our citizens — have rights which are permanent, immutable, 
which belong as much to the minority — to one person — as to 
the majority. To make such rights absolutely secure, they are 
embodied in the constitution, the bounds of which must not, 
cannot be transgressed. 

Therefore, our constitution makes our national government 
a government of limited powers ; of powers expressly granted, 
and necessarily implied therefrom, to give those express powers 
complete efficiency. The powers granted are unlimited in their 
authority, but other powers cannot be exercised. To make 
these denied powers more definite, certain powers are specific- 
ally named; certain other powers are specifically denied, both 
to the United States and to the states ; and certain inalienable 
and other rights of the people are specifically stated, which all 
history teaches have been habitually violated by despotic and 
powerful rulers, and even by chosen representatives of the peo- 
ple. These the constitution puts above the national and state 
governments, and makes inviolably sacred. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 503 

To perpetuate the personal rights of the citizen in amplest 
security; to prevent an unequal burden of taxation being 
placed upon any shoulder; to develop the production of soil 
and skill beyond the needs of home consumption, and give the 
readiest disposition of the surplus abroad; to promote the in- 
ternal trade and commerce of the country, and forever remove 
any obstruction thereto; to insure the honest and known dis- 
bursement of all public money; to preserve the universal equal- 
ity of the people, and prevent any official being influenced by 
any foreign power or potentates ; the following powers are 
expressly denied to the United States. 

[Clause 1.1 The migration or importation of such persons as any of 
the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited 
by the congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, 
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten 
dollars for each person. 

This related to slavery and the slave trade, forever 
abolished. 

[Clause ^.] The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 
suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety 
may require it. 

In all Anglo-Saxon history, no writ is held in higher regard. 
This writ is an order of court directed to the person detaining 
another commanding him to produce the body of the prisoner 
at a certain time and place, with the date that the prisoner was 
taken, and the reasons for his detention, and to obey what the 
court issuing the writ may order with regard to that prisoner. 
It prevents the arbitrary imprisonment of any one, and enables 
one unjustly restrained to regain his liberty. Heavy penalties 
are imposed by the national and every state government upon 
any officer or person disobeying this writ. 

[Clause 3.1 No bill of attainder or ex-post-facto law shall be passed. 

A bill of attainder is an act of legislation; it is passi.ng a 



504 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

bill by some legislative body decl?ring one to be guilty of some 
crime, without a hearing being accorded him, and despoiling 
him of life, liberty, or property as a penalty. In some cases in 
English history, this penalty was visited upon the heirs of the 
victim, and they were rendered incapable of inheritance. No 
legislature in this country can ever thus convict and punish 
any one. 

An ex-post-facto law is one which in its operation makes 
that a crime, or penalty which was not so at the time that the 
act was done ; or which increases the punishment, or, in short, 
which in relation to the offense or its consequences alters the 
situation of a party to his disadvantage. It has no application 
to civil matters ; is confined to criminal and penal proceedings ; 
is a retroactive criminal law. It is, for many reasons, to be 
regretted that all retroactive legislation was not prohibited, 
but it was not. Such legislation in civil affairs has often been 
indulged and held to be constitutional. 

[Claiise 4.] No capitation, or other direct tax, shall be laid, unless in 
proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

This forever equalizes the burden of taxation upon all of 
the people. The ingenuity of owners of property enables them 
to escape much of the intent of the provision, but that is a mat- 
ter of administration; is the fault of the execution of the laws. 
Happily our national government is comparatively unknown in 
the realm of taxation. 

[Clause 5.] No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from 

any state. 

This gives the greatest stimulus, the largest liberty to the 
energies of a producing and manufacturing people, who are 
fast accomplishing the commercial conquest of the world. 

[Claiise 6.] No preference shall be given by any regulation of com- 
merce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall 
vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties 

in another. 



THE CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES 505 

This fosters the generous rivalry of all, and leaves trade 
supremacy to the activity of the energetic. To "enter" is to 
report the arrival of the vessel at the custom house, and give 
to the officials in charge a writing called a manifest, containing 
a list of all merchandise the ship contains, and get permission 
to deliver the same. To "clear," is to furnish a similar list to 
such officials, and get permission to sail. Railroads were un- 
known then ; ships and wagons the only method of transporta- 
tion. This provision enables our various systems of modern 
transportation to disregard state lines in all internal commerce 
and trade. 

[Clause 7.] No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in conse- 
quence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account 
of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published 
from time to time. 

Before any money can be paid out of the treasury of the 
United States, a bill must be enacted by congress stating the 
amount of money and the specific purpose for which it is to be 
paid, and a statement of every item of receipts and expendi- 
tures published within a reasonable time in order that the 
whole country may know how every cent of its money is raised 
and expended. The constitution believes in the policy of 
watching an honest government. 

[Clause 8.] No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, 
and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without 
the consent of the congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, o.* 
title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

No title of nobility can ever be granted for distinguished 
services, even for saving the nation. Our gratitude must be 
expressed in another way. The grandest title in this country 
is the American citizen. Kings, princes, and foreign states are 
made powerless to put our officials under any obligation. The 
President could not accept of a book or a picture from such 
source, unless a special act of congress permitted him to. The 



506 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

same is true with any of our foreign ministers, consuls, or 
officers at home. 

Section 10 

Powers Denied to the States 

To preserve the harmony of national action in regard 
thereto, as well as to protect the citizen, certain powers are 
specifically denied to the states. Outside of these denied pow- 
ers, and the powers conferred exclusively upon the national 
government, the states legislate as independently of the na- 
tional government as if it had no existence. This is what is 
called the sovereignty of the states. 

[Claiise 1.] No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confedera- 
tion ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; 
make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass 
any bill of. attainder, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation 
of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

The observance of this and the third clause of this section 
would have prevented our civil war. 

The prohibition to pass any law impairing the obligation of 
contracts is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the pro- 
tections that the constitution gives to the business interests of 
the country. It provoked no debate in the convention, and is 
but twice mentioned in the "Federalist," but has furnished the 
theater for some of the ablest legal arguments known in ou.r 
history, notably that of Daniel Webster in what is called the 
Dartmouth College case, and has been far-reaching in its favor- 
able results. 

A charter granted by a state to an educational corporation, 
or one for business, or for whatever purpose, is held to be a 
contract that the state can neither revoke, change, or impair. 

If a man agrees to pay ten per cent per annum interest for 
money, and such rate is legal when he makes that contract, but 
the legal rate is reduced to six per cent per annum by a sub- 
sequent law of the legislature, this does not absolve the 
obligated party from paying that ten per cent interest. Neither 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 507 

can any change be made in the law whereby the enforcement 
of the collection of the debt is in any way lessened. This 
clause keeps the state from any treaty with a foreign power, 
and confines them to domestic legislation. While a state can- 
not emit bills of credit, it can issue bonds in payment of its 
debts or to raise funds for public improvements. The other 
prohibited evils have been discussed in the prohibition of pow- 
ers to congress. 

[Clause f.] No state shall, without the consent of the congress, lay 
any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely 
necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all 
duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for 
the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be 
subject to the revision and control of the congress. 

Inspection laws are enacted for moral and sanitary reasons. 
They enable the state to cause the inspection of cattle, food- 
stuffs, and merchandise imported into, or exported from a 
state to prevent the people from being imposed upon by arti- 
cles of spurious manufacture; to prevent the contagious dis- 
eases of cattle being spread; to prevent adulteration of foods 
or other merchandise ; and to insure the traffic in honestly- 
made and wholesome articles. The state can charge such 
duties and imposts as may be necessary to pay the expenses 
of such useful provision, but cannot make any profit out of it, 
or develop it into a sort of interstate tariff* to protect its own 
citizens. 

[Clause 3.] No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any 
duty of tonnage, keejp troops, or ships-of-war, in time of peace, enter into 
any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, 
or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as 
will not admit of delay. 

Tonnage is the number of tons of merchandise that a ship 
can carry. A duty of tonnage is a tax of so much per ton on 
the quantity that the ship is able to carry. This prohibition is 
to promote interstate commerce. The same thing would apply 



508 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

to a freight train as to ships. It simply obliterates state lines 
in the trade and traffic of the country, makes us one commer- 
cial as well as political body politic. The result has been a 
home trade such as no other nation enjoys; an internal pros- 
perity that has made this the richest nation in existence. 

To prevent any one state involving the country in war with 
a foreign power; to insure domestic peace; to bar any attempt 
to break the Union ; keeping the very implements of war — 
troops and ships-of-war — in times of peace is forbidden. The 
wisdom in prohibiting the maintenance of the means that 
would tempt to strife and promote rebellion is shown in these 
provisions, and the further positive prohibition that ''no state 
shall enter into any agreement or compact with another state 
or with a foreign power." 

These are all the exclusive prerogatives that, entering into 
the supreme domain of the Union by the adoption of the con- 
stitution, the states and the people forever surrendered to the 
national government. Obedience to this one clause will for- 
ever banish internal struggle. At the same time, the emer- 
gency of actual invasion, or such imminent danger thereof as 
will not admit of delays, is provided for. These are the only 
exceptions to this established rule. The very language used, 
the word "invasion," shows that hostile action by a foreign 
power is meant, not such action by one state against another. 

The significance of this language, the supremacy of the na- 
tional authority, is additionally emphasized by the Fourth 
Amendment to the Constitution, which will be subsequently 
considered. 

ARTICLE II 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT— PRESIDENT AND 
VICE-PRESIDENT 

Section 1 

[Clause 1.1 The executive power shall be vested in a president of the 
United States of America. He shall hold his oflfiee during the term of four 
years, and, together with the vice-president, chosen for the same term, 
be elected, as follows: 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 509 

The President and Vice-President can be reelected as often 
as the people wish. Washington's example in refusing a third 
term has promoted the public sentiment against more than two 
terms for this exalted office. 

The President's term is put midway between that of repre- 
sentatives and senators. During that term the House of Eep- 
resentatives could be wholly changed twice, and two-thirds of 
the Senate changed. This gives the people opportunity to 
elect enough members of both houses to control a President 
whose conduct did not justify impeachment, yet was obnoxious 
to them. It is too brief a period to establish the executive 
tyranny feared in that early day. 

[Claiise SJ] Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of 
senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the 
congress: but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of 
trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

At the time the constitution went into effect, these electors 
were chosen in some states by the legislature, in some by the 
people in special districts. In 1876 Colorado chose them by 
her legislature. They are now elected at large in some of the 
states, so that a bare majority would carry the electoral vote 
of the whole state. The people have nothing to do, directly, 
with the election of their President. His election could be 
made even more indirect than it is. That is, the legislatures 
could elect the electors, the electors elect the President. It 
was intended and supposed that the ablest, best acquainted, 
and most unselfish men in the country would be chosen elec- 
tors, and that they would make a wiser selection than the peo- 
ple at large. 

Any citizen, native or naturalized, is eligible, except the 
office-holders named. This was done to prevent that official 
influence then considered the most dangerous influence known. . 
The body of electors are termed "the electoral college." It 
has turned out to be the only useless piece of constitutional 



510 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

machinery, if not a dangerous one ; its practical working 
wholly different from intention and expectation. 

It is said in the Federalist (No. 67) that this was the only 
clause of the constitution that not only escaped criticism, but 
evoked compliment. That it provided for the choice of the 
people by men selected for this sole and special purpose, who 
could not be influenced as could a preestablished body. That 
they would be "most capable of analyzing the qualities 
adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favor- 
able to deliberation. That it would afford as little opportunity 
as possible to tumult and disorder. That, not being at the time 
public officials, there would be no opportunity to trade favors 
for votes, and the election must be free from intrigue, inde- 
pendent and calmly judicious." 

Not one of the anticipated advantages has been realized. 
Office-holders do more to dictate the nominations than all 
others combined. There is no deliberate, judicious selection by 
the electors. The election is so full of tumult and excitement 
that every business interest dreads the presidential year. Above 
all, this solemn, greatest choice of the nation is confided to any 
sort of haphazard selection of men v/ho are expected to aban- 
don any and all personal judgment, and cast their votes as 
their party prompts. 

[Clause S.I The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote 
by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant 
of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the 
persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they 
shall sign and certify and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of 
the United States, directed to the president of the senate. .The president 
of the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representa- 
tives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The 
person having the greatest number of votes shall be the president, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if 
there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number 
of votes, then the house of representatives shall immediately choose by 
ballot one of them for president; and if no person have a majority, then 
from the five highest on the list, the said house shall in like manner, choose 
the president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 511 

states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for 
this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the 
states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In 
every case, after the choice of the president, the person having the greatest 
number of votes of the electors shall be the vice-president. But if there 
should remain tvpo or more who have equal votes, the senate shall choose 
from them by ballot the vice-president. 

It will be noticed that the constitution, as originally drawn, 
prescribed no qualifications for the Vice-President. No one 
was voted for for Vice-President. All were voted for as Presi- 
dent, the one having the largest number of votes being elected 
President; the one having the next largest number being 
elected Vice-President. So that only qualifications for the 
President were provided for in the fifth clause. 

The weakness of this method was demonstrated in the third 
election for President, when John Adams was elected Presi- 
dent, and Thomas Jefferson, a leader in opposition to the very 
policy President Adams stood for, was elected Vice-President. 
This was accentuated in the next election, when Thomas Jef- 
ferson and Aaron Burr had an even number of electoral votes, 
but not a majority of all, and, in consequence, the election was 
thrown into the House of Representatives. Then, as now, 
when such is the case, the vote is by states, each state having 
one vot^. the majority of the representatives from each state 
decidiir. Ihe vote thereof. A bitter struggle ensued. Sick 
members were brought in on cots to vote. At last, Jefferson 
was elected by one vote, and Burr became Vice-President. This 
brought about the Twelfth Amendment, whereby the President 
and Vice-President are to be voted for separately, and the 
foregoing clause was made obsolete. 

This amendment passed the House of Representatives in 
1802, but was twice defeated in the Senate. It came up again 
in 1803, when it passed in the Senate, eighty-two to ten votes. \ 
In the House of Representatives the vote stood eighty-four to 
forty-two. the speaker, Mr. Macon, voting in its favor made the 
bare two-thirds vote necessary to submit the amendment for 



512 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

ratification to the states, which ratified it, seventeen states 
voting in favor thereof, and four against it. 

PEESENT METHOD OF ELECTING PRESIDENT AND 
VICE-PRESIDENT 

Article XII 

The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for 
president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhab- 
itant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots 
the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted 
for as vice-president; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons 
voted for as president, and of all persons voted for as vice-president, and 
of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and 
transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed 
to the president of the senate; — the president of the senate shall, in the 
presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates, 
and the votes shall then be counted; — the person having the greatest 
number of votes for president, shall be the president, if such number be a 
majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person 
have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not 
exceeding three on the list of those voted for as president, the house of 
representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the president. But in 
choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation 
' from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist 
of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of 
all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the house of repre- 
sentatives shall not choose a president whenever the right of choice shall 
devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then 
the vice-president shall act as president, as in the case of the death or 
other constitutional disability of the president. The person having the 
greatest number of votes as vice-president, shall be the vice-president, if 
such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have a majority, then from the .two highest numbers on 
the list, the senate shall choose the vice-president ; a quorum for the purpose 
shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority 
of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person consti- 
tutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of 
vice-president of the United States. 

The law in regard to the election of Presidential Electors 
is as follows : 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 513 

The number of electors shall be equal to the number of 
Senators and Representatives to which the several States are 
by law entitled at the time when the President and Vice- 
President to be chosen come into office, except, that where 
no apportionment of Representatives has been made after any 
enumeration, at the time of choosing electors, the number of 
electors shall be according to the then existing apportionment 
of Senators and Representatives. 

Each State may, by law, provide for the filling of any 
vacancies which may occur in its college of electors when 
such college meets to give its electoral vote. 

Whenever any State has held an election for the purpose 
of choosing electors, and has failed to make a choice on the 
day prescribed by law, the electors may be appointed on a 
subsequent day in such a manner as the Legislature of such 
State may direct. 

If any State shall have provided, by laws enacted prior to 
the day fixed for the appointment of the electors, for its final 
determination of any controversy or contest concerning the 
appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, by 
judicial or other methods or procedures, and such determi- 
nation shall have been made at least six days before the time 
fixed for the meeting of the electors, such determination made 
pursuant to such law so existing on said day, and made at 
least six days prior to the said time of meeting of the electors, 
shall be conclusive, and shall govern in the counting of the 
electoral votes as provided in the Constitution, so far as the 
ascertainment of the electors appointed by such State is 
concerned. 

It shall be the duty of the Executive of each State, as soon 
as practicable after the conclusion of the appointment of 
electors of such State, by the final ascertainment under and 
in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such ascer- 
tainment, to communicate under the seal of the State, to the 
Secretary of State of the United States a certificate of such 
ascertainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the 
names of such electors and the canvass or other ascertainment 



514 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

■under the laws of such State of the number of votes given or 
cast for each person for whose appointment any and all votes 
have been given or cast; and it shall also thereupon be the 
duty of the Executive of each State to deliver to the electors 
of such State, on or before the day on which they are required 
to meet, the same certificate in triplicate, under the seal of the 
State; and such certificate shall be enclosed and transmitted 
by the electors at the same time and in the same manner as is 
provided by law for transmitting by such electors to the seat 
of Government the lists of all persons voted for as President 
and of all persons voted for as Vice-President; and if there 
shall have been any final determination in a State of a contro- 
versy or contest as provided, it shall be the duty of the 
Executive of such State, as soon as practicable after such 
determination, to communicate, under the seal of the State, 
to the Secretary of State of the United States, a certificate 
of such determination, in form and manner as the same shall 
have been made; and the Secretary of State of the United 
States, as soon as practicable after the receipt at the State 
Department of each of the certificates directed to be trans- 
mitted to the Secretary of State, shall publish, in such public 
newspaper as he shall designate, such certificates in full; and 
at the first meeting of Congress thereafter he shall transmit 
to the two Houses of Congress copies in full of each and 
every such certificate so received theretofore at the State 
Department. 

The electors of each State shall meet and give their votes 
on the second Monday in January next following their appoint- 
ment, at such place in each State as the legislature of such 
State shall direct. 

The electors shall make and sign three certificates of all 
the votes given by them, each of which certificates shall con- 
tain two distinct lists, one of the votes for President, and the 
other of the votes for Vice-President, and shall annex to each 
of the certificates one of the lists of the electors which shall 
have been furnished to them by direction of the Executive of 
the State. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 515 

The electors shall seal up the certificates so made by them, 
and certify upon each that the lists of all the votes of such 
State given for President, and of all the votes given for Vice- 
President, are contained therein. 

The electors shall dispose of the certificates thus made by 
them in the following manner: 

One. They shall, by writing under their hands, or under 
the hands of a majority of them, appoint a person to take 
charge of and deliver to the President of the Senate at the 
seat of Government, forthwith after the second Monday in 
January on which the electors shall give their votes, one of the 
certificates. 

. Two. They shall forthwith forward by the postoffice to 
the President of the Senate at the seat of Government, one 
other of the certificates. 

Three. They shall forthwith cause the other of the cer- 
tificates to be delivered to the Judge of the District Court of 
the United States of that District in which the electors shall 
assemble. 

Whenever a certificate of votes from any State has not 
been received at the seat of Government on the fourth Monday 
of the month of January in which their meeting shall have 
been held, the Secretary of State shall send a special mes- 
senger to the District Judge in whose custody one of the 
certificates of votes from that State has been lodged, and 
such Judge shall forthwith transmit that list to the seat of 
Government. 

The electors appoint the messenger to deliver the cer- 
tificate mentioned by ballot, lot or otherwise, as they see fit. 
This messenger is allowed twenty-five cents for every mile of 
the estimated distance, by the most usual road, from the place 
of meeting of the electors to the seat of Government of the 
United States, and is subject to a fine of $1,000.00 for neglect 
to perform the service required from him. 

In case there shall be no President of the Senate at the 
seat of Government on the arrival of the persons entrusted 
with the certificates of the votes of the electors, then such 



516 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

persons shall deliver such certificates into the office of the 
Secretary of State, to be safely kept, and delivered over as 
soon as may be to the President of the Senate. 

The electors, in voting for President and Vice-President, 
are prohibited from voting for two persons who are from the 
same State, that is, the President and Vice-President must 
be from different states. 

Congress shall be in session on the second "Wednesday in 
February succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate 
and House of Representatives shall meet in the hall of the 
House of Representatives at the hour of one o'clock in the 
afternoon on that day, and the President of the Senate shall 
be their presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously 
appointed on the part of the Senate and two on the part of 
the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as 
they are opened by the President of the Senate, all the cer- 
tificates and papers purporting to be the certificates of the 
electoral votes, which certificates and papers shall be opened, 
presented and acted upon in the alphabetical order of the 
states, beginning with the letter A; and said tellers having 
then read the same in the presence and hearing of the 
two Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear 
from the said certificates; and the votes having been ascer- 
tained and counted in the manner and according to the rules 
in this Act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered 
to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce 
the state of the vote, which announcement shall be deemed a 
sufficient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President 
and Vice-President of the United States, and together with a 
list of the votes, be entered on the Journals of the two Houses. 
Upon such reading of any such certificate or paper, the Presi- 
dent of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every 
objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and 
concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and 
shall be signed by at least one Senator and one member o£ 
the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. 
When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 517 

State shall have been received and read, the Senate shall 
thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be submitted 
to the Senate for its decision ; and the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such objec- 
tions to the House of Representatives for its decision ; and no 
electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been 
regularly given by electors whose appointment has been law- 
fully certified to, as provided, from which but one return 
has been received, shall be rejected, but the two Houses con- 
currently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that 
such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors 
whose appointment has been so certified. If more than one 
return or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall 
have been received by the President of the Senate, those votes, 
and those only, shall be counted which shall have been regu- 
larly given by the electors who are shown by the determina- 
tion mentioned to have been appointed, if the determination 
provided for shall have been made, or by such successors or 
substitutes, in ease of a vacancy in the board of electors so 
ascertained, as have been appointed to fill such vacancy in 
the mode provided by the laws of the State ; but in case there 
shall arise the question which of two or more of such State 
authorities determining what electors have been appointed, 
as mentioned, is the lawful tribunal of such State, the votes 
regularly given by those electors, and those only, of such State 
shall be counted whose title as electors the two Houses, acting 
separately, shall concurrently decide is supported by the deci- 
sion of such State so authorized by its laws ; and in such case 
of more than one return or paper purporting to be a return 
from a State, if there shall have been no such determination 
of the question in the State aforesaid, then those votes, and 
those only, shall be counted which the two Houses shall con- 
currently decide were cast by lawful electors appointed in 
accordance wnth the laws of the State, unless the two Houses, 
acting separately, shall concurrently decide such votes not to 
be the lawful votes of the legally appointed electors of such 
State. But if the two Houses shall disagree in respect of the 



518 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

counting of such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of 
the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by 
the Executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be 
counted. When the two Houses shall have voted, they shall 
immediately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then 
announce the decision of the questions submitted. No votes 
or papers from any other State shall be acted upon until the 
objections previously made to the votes or papers from any 
State shall have been finally disposed of. 

While the two Houses shall be in meeting as provided in 
this Act the President of the Senate shall have power to 
preserve order; and no debate shall be allowed and no ques- 
tion shall be put by the presiding officer except to either 
House on a motion to withdraw. 

When the two Houses separate to decide upon an objection 
that may have been made to the counting of any electoral 
vote or votes from any State, or other question arising in the 
matter, each Senator and Representative may speak to such 
objection or question five minutes, and not more than once; 
but after such debate shall have lasted two hours it shall be 
the duty of the presiding officer of each House to put the main 
question without further debate. 

At such joint meeting of the two Houses seats shall be 
provided as follows: For the President of the Senate, the ♦ 
Speaker's chair; for the Speaker, immediately upon his left; 
the Senators in the body of the hall upon the right of the 
presiding oifieer ; for the Representatives, in the body of the 
hall not provided for the Senators; for the tellers. Secretary 
of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of Representatives, at 
the Clerk's desk; for the other officers of the two Houses, in 
front of the Clerk's desk and upon each side of the Speaker's 
platform. Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until 
the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result 
declared; and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall 
have arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise 
under this Act, in which case it shall be competent for either 
House, acting separately, in the manner hereinbefore provided, 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 519 

to direct a recess of such House not beyond the next calendar 
day, Sunday excepted, at the hour of ten o'clock in the fore- 
noon. But if the counting of the electoral votes and the 
declaration of the result shall not have been completed before 
the fifth calendar day next after such first meeting of the two 
Houses, no further or other recess shall be taken by either 
House. 

If, by the fourth of March next following, no person have 
such majority, the life of that Congress then ending by opera- 
tion of law, the joint session of the two Houses is, ipso facto, 
dissolved, and each proceeds to conduct an election; the 
House of Representatives for President, the Senate for Vice- 
President, as follows : From the persons having the highest 
number of votes, not exceeding three, on the list of those 
voted for as President, the House of Representatives proceeds 
to choose, by ballot, the President. This vote is taken by 
states, the representatives from each state having one vote, 
so that the majority of the representatives from each state 
decide for whom the vote of that state shall be cast. 

A different course is pursued by the Senate in the election 
of the Vice-President. The senators vote as individuals, not 
as representing particular states. There is no provision in the 
constitution as to whether the vote in the Senate shall be by 
ballot, or viva voce. The only conditions are, that two-thirds 
of the whole number of senators shall be present, and that a 
majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 
From the two highest numbers on the list of those voted for as 
Vice-President, the Senate elects the Vice-President. 

This method is not only a useless but dangerous piece of 
mechanism. The original theory was, that the people at large 
could not possibly be well enough acquainted with public men 
to judge of their qualifications for this exalted office. That 
electors, eminent in moral and intellectual character, who were 
personally acquainted with the qualifications of the statesmen 
of their time, would be chosen, and that they would make the 
best selection. Political parties, such as now exist, were then 
unknown. These electors were to both nominate and elect. 



520 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

The presidential electors have come to be merely so many 
automata to register the vote of their respective parties, and, 
in the main, are chosen simply to compliment the individual. 
Not one voter in a thousand pays any attention to who they 
are, or realizes their constitutional power. Their names are 
seldom, if ever, mentioned in a campaign, nor are they consid- 
ered in the election. An analysis of the men composing the 
electoral college would present the craziest quilt in character 
and qualification known in our political life. 

At the tenth presidential election there were four candi- 
dates: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, "William H. 
Crawford, and Henry Clay. No one received a majority of the 
whole number of electoral votes, and the election was for the 
second time thrown into the House of Representatives, when 
Mr. Adams received thirteen. General Jackson seven, and Mr. 
Crawford four votes ; Mr. Adams being elected President, 

General Jackson having received the largest number, both 
of electoral and popular votes, on the original count, never got 
over this. In nearly every message he sent to congress, after 
he was subsequently elected President, he advocated an amend- 
ment to the constitution whereby the President should be 
elected by direct vote of the people. 

In 1873, Horace Greeley having been the year previous the 
nominee for President and B. Gratz Brown for Vice-President, 
and Mr, Greeley having died after the election, but prior to the 
casting of the electoral vote, the electors chosen in their be- 
half, instead of voting for Mr, Brown, the legitimate heir to 
the presidency on his ticket, voted as follows: for Thomas A. 
Hendricks, 42 ; for B. Gratz Brown, 18 ; for Charles J. Jenkins, 
2; for David Davis, 1. 

In 1876, the two candidates receiving the highest number 
of votes M^ere Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J, Tilden. Mr. 
Tilden had a popular majority, according to the Democratic 
count of 264,292; according to the Republican count, of 252,- 
224. When it came to count the electoral vote, congress had 
before it three certificates from Florida for its electoral vote, 
and two certificates, each, from Louisiana and Oregon for their 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 521 

electoral votes. There was no law to settle which was the 
proper electoral vote of a state when such conflict existed. An 
electoral commission was agreed upon, consisting of fifteen 
members, five from the supreme court, five from the Senate, 
and five from the House of Representatives. This commission 
was composed of eight Republicans and seven Democrats, and 
by a vote of eight to seven decided that Mr. Hayes was the 
lawfully elected President. 

There is nothing in the constitution, or any other enacted 
law, obligating any member of the electoral college to vote for 
the candidate for whom he is chosen to vote. Should he exer- 
cise the freedom of judgment the constitution intended he 
should, he could vote for any one he saw fit. In the present 
careless manner of choosing presidential electors, it is both 
possible and probable that a self-willed or corrupt elector may 
be chosen, who, through bribe or pique, could be led to betray 
his party and thwart the will of his constituents by either vot- 
ing for the very candidate he was chosen to vote against, or 
for some other, whereby there would be no election by the elec- 
tors, the election thrown into a House of Representatives whose 
majority by states was adverse to the candidate for whom he 
was chosen to vote, and thus the same end accomplished. 

Within ten days after the November election, the whole 
country knows the result, and the fact that all vote in their 
several states on the same day far from precludes that com- 
bination and trickery in the meantime that was intended by 
their simultaneous vote. 

At the same time that John Jay was governor of New York, 
and his, the Federalist party, was in a majority in the legisla- 
ture, and the legislature elected the electors, the opposite party 
proposed a measure changing the law, so as to have the elec- 
tors chosen directly by the people in separate districts. The 
Federalists, confident of a majority in the succeeding legisla- 
ture, opposed it. When it was seen that the new legislature 
would be anti-Federalist, Alexander Hamilton wrote to Gover- 
nor Jay to convene the legislature, and have it pass a law for 
the election of electors by the people, just such as the over- 



523 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

confident Federalists had opposed. Governor Jay indorsed on 
that letter, ''Proposing a measure for party purposes, which I 
think it would be unbecoming in me to adopt." After his 
death, this letter with the indorsement on it was found among 
his papers. 

Political scheming is not confined to any one era. There 
have been and will be governors so swayed by party thraldom 
that they would not display the lofty patriotic integrity of 
Governor Jay, who resigned the high office of chief justice of 
the Supreme Court of the United States to become governor of 
New York. A partisan governor, backed by a partisan legis- 
lature, seeing the drift of sentiment against their party, and 
in which state the people were allowed to elect the electors, 
might change the law so that the legislature could elect the 
electors, and thus defeat the will of the people. 

Each of the presidential contests mentioned came near 
agonizing the country with the throes of revolution. It may 
take some dread event to bring about the needed change. 

[Clause 4.1 The congress may determine the time of choosing the 
electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall 
be the same throughout the United States. 

This simultaneous vote of the far-separated states may at 
that time, when communication was so difficult, have secured a 
fair selection, free from trade and combination of candidates. 
There was no opportunity to get together and intrigue for 
advantage. The annihilation of time and space by telegraphs 
and rail render the reasons for the adoption of this provision 
nearly, if not entirely, groundless. There is now ample time 
and opportunity to concoct the very combinations and schemes 
it was believed this clause would avoid. 

{Clame 5.'] No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of 
the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be 
eligible to the office of president; neither shall any person be eligible to 
that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and 
been fourteen years resident within the United States. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 523 

Many citizens of foreign birth, at that time, had braved the 
dangers of the battles of the Revolution, been members of the 
Continental Congress, and some such were members of that 
very convention. They were justly given all the opportunities 
of honor accorded the native born. 

No one but a native is now eligible. It was deemed that 
long residence out of the country would unfit a native for this 
high office ; deprive one of the knowledge of and interest in the 
conditions and affairs of the land necessary to fit him for its 
high office. Residence abroad as minister, consul, or in other 
official capacity is not considered residence without the coun- 
try, and is not reckoned against an aspirant for any office. 

[Clause 6.] In case of removal of the president from office, or of his 
death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the 
said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-president, and the congress 
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, 
both of the president and vice-president, declaring what officer shall then 
act as president; and such officer shall act accordingly until the disability 
be removed, or a president shall be elected. 

At first, the vice-presidency was considered of equal im- 
portance to the presidency. Men of most distinguished quali- 
fication were selected, and several succeeded to the presidency. 
Then the estimate of its importance lapsed, but that estimate is 
returning to its original strength with politicians and people 
alike. 

Five times the Vice-President has succeeded to the presi- 
dency. Four failed of renomination, and alienated their party 
on their accession. President William Henry Harrison died 
after serving but one month, and was succeeded by Vice-Presi- 
dent John Tyler. President Zaehary Taylor died after serving 
one year and four months, and was succeeded by Vice-Presi- 
dent Millard Fillmore. President Abraham Lincoln was assas- 
sinated but little over a month after his second election, and 
was succeeded by Vice-President Andrew Johnson. President 
James A. Garfield, after serving six months and fifteen days, 
died at the hands of an assassin, and was succeeded by Vice- 
President Chester A. Arthur. President William Mckinley, 



l^lLi^ 



534 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

having served six months and ten days of his second term, be- 
came our third martyred President by an assassin's bullet, and 
was succeeded by Vice-President, Theodore Roosevelt. These 
fateful lessons are teaching the American people to select can- 
didates of equal calibre for these exalted offices. 

In case of the death, resignation, or disability of both Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, congress has provided that the mem- 
bers of the President's Cabinet shall succeed to the office in the 
following order: Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, Secretary of War, Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, 
Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary 
of Agriculture and Secretary of Commerce and Labor, until 
the disability is removed or a President is elected. In sueh 
event, the acting President, if Congress is not then in session, 
must call a special session, giving twenty days' notice thereof. 

[Clause 7.] The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services 
a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the 
period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within 
that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

This compensation is now seventy-five thousand dollars 
per year, payable monthly. He is allowed, in addition, twenty- 
five thousand dollars per year for travelling expenses, that he 
may frequently visit and come in personal touch with the 
people of the country, they with him, and, both, directly 
confer on the policies of government. He is, also, allowed 
stated sums for salaries of secretaries, stenographers, and 
other necessary assistance, and for the maintenance of the 
"White House," his official residence, but not for what might 
be termed the "living," or domestic expenses of his house- 
hold, state entertainments, etc., which entail no little personal 
expense, unavoidable in his exalted office, and such as are 
provided for out of the public funds by other nations. 

For this reason, none of our Presidents have ever been 
able to save much, if anything, out of their salaries, and a 
proper life-pension for our Presidents, after leaving that high 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 525 

office, as is provided for the Justices of the Supreme Court, 
has strong advocacy among our whole people. 

Inability to increase or diminish that salary puts him 
beyond the temptation of yielding to congress for the sake of 
gain; robs congress of the power to coerce him by reducing 
his salary; and, in that regard, insures his independence from 
sordid or menial motives. 

[Clause 5.] Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall 
take the following oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 
that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, 
and wiU, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the con- 
stitution of the United States." 

In addition to the noblest motives that could inspire the 
ambition and patriotism of mortality, the solemnity of an oath 
or affirmation before the God to whom every member of that 
convention gave no idle, but the most supreme and reverent 
worship, was required of him who assumed the awe-inspiring 
duties, responsibilities and obligations of the office which every 
true American regards as the highest on this earth. 

Section 2 
Powers of the President 

[Clause 1.] The president shall be commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, 
when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require 
the opinion, in writing, of the j)rincipal officer in each of the executive 
departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective 
offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses 
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

[Clause S.] He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent 
of the senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present 
concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent 
of the senate shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
judges of the supreme court, and all other officers of the United States, 
whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall 
be established by law: but the congress may by law vest the appointment 
of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the president alone, in 
the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 



526 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

[Clause 3.1 The president sliall have power to fill up all vacancies that 
may happen during the recess of the senate, by granting commissions which 
shall expire at the end of their next session. 

The fear of the "Fathers" for any sort of one-man power, 
of royal or kingly rule, is shown in the scant and shorn powers 
of the President. His only exclusive powers (that is, those in 
the exercise of which he need consult no one ; is not required 
to seek the advice and consent of any one) are as follows: 

He has the powers of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army 
and Navy of the United States at all times, but over the militia 
of the several states only when called into the actual service 
of the United States. In times of peace he has no control over 
the state militia. He can pardon or reprieve for any offense 
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. In 
such cases, he cannot save his political friends. He can compel 
the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the 
executive departments, upon any of the subjects relating to the 
duties of their respective offices. He can nominate whomsoever 
he sees fit for the offices named; and if the Senate be not in 
session, he can commission such officers, and they can perform 
the duties of such offices until the last day of the succeeding 
session of the Senate. If he found such person would not be 
confirmed for the office by the Senate, he could refrain from 
nominating any one for the office, let the commission of such 
person so expire, and reappoint him when the Senate ad- 
journed. In this way, he could keep a person obnoxious to the 
Senate in office. But there is small probability of such advan- 
tage being taken. He can convene both or either house of 
congress whenever he alone deems it necessary; and in case of 
disagreement between them as to the time of adjournment, can 
adjourn them to such time as he sees proper. 

He can receive, or refuse to receive, ambassadors and minis- 
ters of foreign powers. Receiving such officials is recognition 
of the government that sends them to this government. Should 
this be a new government that had rebelled against an existing 
government, known as one of the nations of the world, it would 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 537 

be a serious matter, and might lead to war with the old govern- 
ment. So, refusing to receive such official from such new, or 
any government, unless the official was personally obnoxious, 
while it would not lead to war, might involve the nation in 
serious embarrassment. 

The intelligent discretion of our presidents in such matters 
has never been abused by its wrongful exercise. All other 
powers he must exercise by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate. If the Senate be in session, he cannot commis- 
sion an officer, even in his own Cabinet, without such concur- 
rence. Then, he can only nominate, and they cannot act until 
the Senate confirms their appointment. 

Thus, it will be seen, his constitutional powers, so far as 
they may be considered personal powers by virtue of his office, 
are very limited. They are mainly moral, as the head of the 
government and his party. His power of patronage is great, 
because, while the Senate must by a majority vote confirm his 
appointments, no person or power can dictate whom he shall 
nominate. However much the entire Senate might desire to 
place some person in position, they could not do so unless the 
President saw fit to nominate him. He has the advantage in 
that, and it gives him his principal practical power. 

The burden put upon the President by persistent office- 
seekers, and by members of congress striving to reward their 
friends, in the effort to secure such nominations, is almost past 
mortal endurance, and undoubtedly conflicts with the higher 
duties he owes to the whole people, and deprives him of much 
of the opportunity he should have to consider the weighty mat- 
ters of general concern. Nor is it the least cause of much inter- 
ested dissatisfaction and unjust criticism. 

Section 3 
ffuties of the President 

He shall from time to time give to the consTrcs information of tfie 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration snch measures as 
he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary oceasions, 



528 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between 
them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to 
such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other 
public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, 
and shall commission all the officers of the United States. 

This information and recommendation is given by what is 
called the President's message. These messages have no bind- 
ing force, are merely suggestive. They have constituted a 
series of the ablest state papers and historical information the 
country possesses. 

When a law is enacted, with or without his approval, it is 
his sworn duty to have it executed. He has no option about 
the matter then, however much he may feel that it is a bad law. 
Of his many terse sayings that have become keynotes for the 
country's conduct, none are of more significant and instructive 
value than this of President Grant: ''The best way to secure 
the repeal of a bad law is to enforce it." 

Section 4 
Impeachment of the President and All Civil Officers 

The president, vice-president, and all civil officers of the United States, 
shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

By a learned authority it is said : "All officers of the United 
States who hold their appointments under the national gov- 
ernment, whether their duties are executive or judicial in the 
highest or in the lowest department of the government, with 
the exception of the officers in the army and navy, are properly 
civil officers within the meaning of the constitution, and liable 
to impeachment." 

Article III — Section 1 

The Judicial Department — United States Courts 

[Clause l.'\ The judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may from 
time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and 
inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at 
stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not be 
diminished during their continuance in office. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 509 

Under this clause the vast system of United States courts 
has been established. 

The Supreme Court, at first, consisted of a chief justice and 
five associate justices. It was enlarged to nine associate jus- 
tices, and then the number reduced to eight, as at present. 

There are nine circuits, corresponding to the number of 
justices on the supreme bench, in which one of their number, 
by special assignment, presides annually with one of the cir- 
cuit judges. In each circuit is a circuit court of appeals, in 
which the circuit and district judges are competent to sit. 
There are now twenty-six circuit judges, and seventy district 
courts with that number of district judges, besides the courts 
of the territories and the District of Columbia ; and the court 
of claims, the latter sitting in the city of "Washington. 

The judges in the territories are appointed every four 
years ; the others hold office during good behavior, or for life. 
They are made independent in income, in that their salaries 
never can be diminished, and can be removed only by impeach- 
ment. 

The other officers of national courts are the attorney-gen- 
eral, the district attorneys, the marshals, and the clerks. All 
but the clerks are appointed by the President, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate. 

The Attorney-General is a member of the President's Cab- 
inet. He attends to all the business of the government in the 
Supreme Court, and advises the President and other executive 
officers upon all questions of law, and often directs the action 
of the district attorneys. 

The marshal performs the same duties for the government 
as the sheriff does for the county. 

The clerks perform the same duties for the United States 
courts as do the clerks for the state courts. Their appointment 
is vested by congress in the judges of the various courts. They 
have the custody of the seal and the records of their respective 
courts ; sign and seal all processes ; receive the money paid into 
the court, and must render an account thereof to the court at 
each of its sessions. 



530 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

No department of our government has ever enjoyed that 
respect, if not reverence, that is accorded our supreme court. 
The sentiment of jurists, statesmen and people, not only of our 
own country, but of the civilized world, could not be better ex- 
pressed than as follows, in Bryce's "Amerioan Common- 
wealth:" 

"No product of government, either here or elsewhere, has 
ever approached it in grandeur. Within its appropriate sphere 
it is absolute in authority. From its mandates there is no ap- 
peal. Its decree is law. In dignity and moral influence it out- 
ranks all other judicial tribunals of the world. No court of 
either ancient or modern times was ever invested with such 
high prerogatives. Its jurisdiction extends over sovereign 
states as well as the humblest individual. It is armed with the 
right, as well as the power, to annul in effect the statutes of a 
state whenever they are directed against the civil rights, the 
contracts, the currency or the intercourse of the people. 

''Secure in the tenure of its judges from the influence of 
politics and the violence of prejudice and passion, it presents 
an example of judicial independence unattainable in any of the 
states and far beyond that of the highest court in England. Its 
judges are the sworn ministers of the constitution and are the 
high priests of justice. Acknowledging no superior, and re- 
sponsible to their consciences alone, they owe allegiance only 
to the constitution and to their own exalted sense of duty. No 
institution of purely human contrivance presents so many 
features calculated to inspire both veneration and awe." 

Section 2 

Jurisdiction of the United States Courts — Where 
Trials Shall Be Had 

[Clause i.] The judicial power shall extend to all eases, in law and 
equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and 
treaties made or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases 
aifecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of 
admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 531 

States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more states; 
between a state and citizens of another state ; between citizens of different 
states; between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of 
different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign 
states, citizens or subjects. 

Under the above clause, a state could be sued. This was 
once done, and was considered such an offense to the dignity 
of the state that it was made obsolete by the Eleventh Amend- 
ment to the Constitution. (Chisholm vs. Georgia, 2 Dallas, 
U. S. Supreme Court Reports, page 419.) 

All of the states have established courts of claims, wherein 
justice may be done those asserting claims against them, and 
whose judgments are obeyed without recourse to an officer to 
enforce them. 

Eleventh Amendment 

Article XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be 
construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted 
against any of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens 
or subjects of any foreign state. 

Upon any question wherein a constitutional right is in- 
volved, suit can be brought in, or taken from a state court to 
the United States courts. The citizen of one state suing the 
citizen of another state, can bring his suit either in the court 
of the state where the latter is, or in the United States court. 
If two citizens of the same state have a controversy about lands 
held under grants of different states, they have the same op- 
tion. The same if a native sues a foreign citizen. The foreign 
citizen, if sued in a state court, can have the case transferred 
to the United States court, unless his country and this be at 
war. 

The design is to provide a tribunal having no mterest on 
the one side more than on the other. So that where one fears 
state partiality or prejudice, he can resort to the court common 
to all— the United States court. This leaves the great volume 
of ordinary rights to be settled in the state, or local courts. 



632 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Original Jurisdiction 

[Claiise ^.] In aU cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the supreme court 
shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned, the 
supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, 
with such exceptions and under such regulations as the congress shall make. 

Original jurisdiction means the first court in which a suit 
can be brought. It is an international law that ambassadors 
and other officials of a foreign power are not subject to the 
laws of the nation where they are stationed. Their rights, 
powers, and duties come under the law of nations. All countries 
are subject to this law. Being an international matter when 
they are affected, only the highest court in the country can 
consider questions concerning them. In the same manner, the 
states are held to be of too great dignity to sue or be sued by 
each other in any other than this court. 

How and Where Trials Shall Be Held— Trial by 
Jury Made Permanent and Inviolate 

[Clause 3.] The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeacTiment, 
shall be by jury; and such trials shall be held in the state where the said 
crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, 
the trial shall be at such place or places as the congress may by law have 
directed. 

As trial by impeachment has been otherwise provided for, 
the sacred right of trial by jury in all criminal matters is here- 
by made forever inviolate. Such trial must be had in the state 
where the offense is charged to have been committed, that the 
accused may have every opportunity of procuring his wit- 
nesses, and being tried by a jury unprejudiced against him, as 
they might be against one from another state. The transporta- 
tion of Americans to England for trial doubtless occasioned 
this provision. If the crime should be committed in territory 
belonging to the national government, and beyond the state's 
borders, the fixing of a place for the trial thereof by congress 
results as a necessity. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 533 

Section 3 

Treasoii — What It Shall Consist of — Limits of Testimony to 
Convict — Limit of Power to Punish For 

[Clause 1.] Treason against the United States shall consist only in 
levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid 
and comfort. 

[Clause S.] No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the tes- 
timony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open 
court. 

[Clause 3.] The congress shall have power to declare the punishment 
of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or 
forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. 

So many offenses were formerly and in other countries 
denominated treason, and it was made so much a matter of 
politics to ruin adversaries, that what it should consist of was 
simply defined in the constitution, and confined to the two 
things named. No one witness is allowed to convict a man, 
nor can any confession, outside of the court-room, be testified- 
to. no matter how many witnesses were ready to swear they 
had heard it. 

History shows so many unjust convictions for this crime 
through coerced, tortured confessions, and flagrant perjuries 
by partisans, that every precaution was taken to guard against 
them. It is the most infamous crime known against govern- 
ment. So many have been the temptations, so heinous the 
efforts to convict of it, that proof of it must be made beyond 
peradventure. 

The punishments therefor have been of such revolting 
atrocity, that congress was left to fix that punishment, under 
the clause that cruel and unusual punishments should not be in- 
flicted. Nor are the innocent heirs of the convicted to be af- 
fected. Their burden of shame is ample, without barring the 
right of inheritance, or making them share in suffering for 
something with which they had naught to do. 



534 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Article IV — Section 1 
State Records 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, 
records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the congress 
may by general laws -prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and 
proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Should any question come up in one state as to what was 
the law in another, a copy of the law published under the au- 
thority of the state in question would settle what that law was. 
So a properly authenticated copy of any state record is taken 
as true by any other state. 

The successful party to a suit once tried in one state can 
never be harassed by its re-trial in another state. If he wished 
to enforce a judgment he had so obtained in one state on prop- 
erty in another state, he would not have to re-try the case, but 
bring suit on the judgment, and establish it by the records of 
the state where obtained. So, if sued, and he had defeated the 
suit, and it was brought against him in another state, the for- 
mer record enables him to have all proceedings stopped in the 
state where the suit was brought over again. 

Section 2 
What Are Privileges and Immunities of Citizens 

[Clause i.] The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges 
and immunities of citizens in the several states. 

These are not political privileges, but those fundamental 
rights of the citizen that are regarded las inalienable. These are 
the right to contract; to pursue a lawful vocation; to enjoy 
equal conveniences of transportation and lodging; to enjoy the 
same rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that 
the citizens of the state where he might be enjoy in their do- 
mestic and business relations. 

It does not allow the importation from one state to another 
of the right to vote, or any other peculiar political privilege 
allowed in the state from which one comes. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 535 

[Clause S.] A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or 
other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another state, shall, 
on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be 
delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. 

As the officers of one state have no more authority in an- 
other than a private citizen, this enables fleeing criminals to be 
brought to justice in the state whose laws they have offended. 
This is accomplished by the governor of the state from which 
the criminal fled sending an officer with a written request, 
called a requisition, to the governor of the state where the per- 
son is, that such person be apprehended and delivered to such 
officer to be brought back to the former state to be dealt with 
according to its laws.. 

When the requested governor honors the requisition, he 
orders the sheriff, or some officer of his state, to arrest and de-- 
liver such person to the officer of the sister state. The crim- 
inal is then as much in the custody of the latter officer as if he 
were in his own state. 

[Clause 3.] No person held to service or labor in one state, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. 

Under this clause fugitive slave laws were enacted. It is 
now obsolete. 

Section 3 

New States and Territories 

[Clause I.] New states may be admitted by the congress into this 
Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction 
of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or 
more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislature of 
the states concerned as well as of the congress. 

It has always been the policy of our government to develop 
the territories into states as rapidly as possible. "When a terri- 
tory wishes statehood, it applies for admission as a state ; shows 



536 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMEES 

its population and resources, its fitness and ability to have and 
maintain a state government, and submits its proposed Con- 
stitution for approval by Congress, Congress then decides 
whether or not to grant the request, and upon what terms and 
conditions as to the constitution it shall adopt. 

No state sovereignty can ever be invaded by consolidating 
or dividing states by congress alone. This must be a mutual 
matter, all concerned, the legislatures of the states affected and 
congress consenting. It will be noticed that the prohibition is 
as much upon the states acting alone as it is upon the national 
congress so acting. 

[Clause 2.'] The congress shall have power to dispose of and make all 
needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property- 
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall be 
so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any 
particular state. 

Under this clause, the vast and beneficent system of acquir- 
ing homesteads on public lands has populated prosperous 
states, once thought to be worthless for habitation. It makes 
possible the proper government of all newly acquired territory, 
and other government domain or property. 

At that time many of the states had individual ownership 
of vast tracts of land, and provision is made preventing de- 
spoiling them thereof, at the same time allowing the national 
government to assert its rights in such as it had acquired or 
claimed rights to land. 

Section 4 

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a repub- 
lican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, 
and on application of the legislature or of the executive (when the legis- 
lature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. 

This supports every state government with the national 
power. It insures republican government in all. It is an in- 
vulnerable shield against foreign invasion. To attack any one 
state is to attack all. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 537 

Much heated discussion has been occasioned by the last part 
of this clause. Twice the national government sent troops to 
the state of Illinois to quell domestic violence, and both times 
the governors stoutly protested against it. In the last instance, 
it was claimed under the right and duty of the national govern- 
ment to protect interstate commerce. The contention was, that 
unless either the legislature or the governor requested it, the 
national government had no right to send its soldiers into a 
state ; that the state must preserve order within its bounds, and 
the national government come only on call. 

Article V 
Power and Method of Amendment 

The congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, 
shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the application of 
the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention 
for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents 
and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by the legislatures 
of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths 
thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by. 
the congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the 
year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the 
first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that 
no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the 
senate. 

This gives two ways to propose and two ways to pass 
amendments to the constitution. Two-thirds of both houses of 
congress can propose amendments. "When two-thirds of the 
legislatures of the states apply therefor, congress must call a 
convention to propose amendments. Congress decides whether 
such proposed amendments shall be ratified by the legislatures 
of the states, or by conventions called in each for this specific 
purpose. 

Either way is an indirect way for the people. They do not 
vote directly on amendments, but for members of the legisla- 
ture, or the convention who are supposed to carry out their 
wishes. Three-fourths of either the legislatures or conventions 



538 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

must ratify the amendments to make them part of the constitu- 
tion. Proposing them by congress and ratifying them by the 
legislatures is the only method employed so far. No amend- 
ment can ever be made depriving the states of equal suffrage in 
the Senate. 

Article VI 

Public Debt — Supremacy of the Constitution — Oath of Office — 

Religious Test 

[Clause i.] All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before 
the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United States 
under this constitution, as under the confederation. 

This is simply the declaration of an international law, and 
was doubtless to assure our then clamorous creditors that the 
new government would keep faith with them. 

[Clause S.'\ This constitution, and the laws of the United States which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall 
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, 
anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

No plainer definition and declaration of national supremacy 
could be framed. 

[Clause 3.'] The senators and representatives before mentioned, and 
the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial 
ofl&cers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound 
by oath or affirmation to support this constitution; but no religious test 
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under 
the United States. 

The constitution not only declares the national constitu- 
tion, the laws, and the treaties of the national government to be 
the supreme law of the land; not only puts the officers of the 
national government under solemn oath or aifirmation to sup- 
port it, but further asserts that supremacy by making it a 
condition to holding any legislative, executive, or judicial office 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 539 

in a state, to take a solemn oath or affirmation to support the 
national constitution. This is the only qualification or condi- 
tion that it imposes upon a state official. In so doing it asserts 
its supremacy. 

"While no religious test can ever be required to any office 
or public trust under nation or state, as to its own officers, here 
is recognition of the Supreme Being, under whose guidance 
this government was founded, this constitution framed. 

Article VII 

The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for 
the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying 
the same. 

The eleven states that at first ratified the constitution, and 
every state that has since come into the Union, took this consti- 
tution on its terms, adopted it in whole and part, and are in- 
separably and forever bound by its solemn terms. 

The Amendments to the Constitution 

The dearest legislative child of the Magna Charta was the 
English Bill of Eights, enacted in 1689, when William and 
Mary were given the crown only on condition that they signed 
and made oath to observe it. Every monarch since has so 
pledged to uphold it, upon his or her accession to the throne. 
As English subjects, reverent regard for it was hereditary. As 
thoughtful men, it appealed to their best intelligence. As 
regardful of all history, and especially of the disastrous despot- 
ism practiced by their rulers in every colony, in disregard of 
its salutary provisions, its value as an established and observed 
statute grew in universal estimation. About the first thing 
considered in every American state constitution was a Bill of 
Rights, modeled upon this time-honored product of most 
thoughtful evolution and bloody experience. 

The proposed constitution contained no Bill of Rights, 
This omission was the most influential, the most powerful 
argument with which the opponents of the adoption of the 



540 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

constitution appealed to the historic experience, the common 
sense, the conscience, the republican prejudices of the people, 
and cited the indisputable example of all history to support. 
Its establishment as law had been the heroic struggle of the 
ages; its higher enthronement the cherished dream of a liberty- 
loving, liberty-seeking people. The wounds of its disregard 
smarted yet. This omission was opening the door for the 
entrance and enthronement of a cloaked tyranny in the guise 
of promised republican government. 

The hope and promise of its incorporation into the con- 
stitution by amendment was the inducement to support held 
out by the advocates for adoption. But for that, it is probable 
the wavering scale would not have turned in a favorable way. 
This hope was realized, this promise fulfilled in the so early 
adoption of the first ten amendments to the constitution, which 
are almost a verbal repetition of that Bill of Rights, that they 
may be considered as part of the original instrument. 

They are the people's original part, and as strong a witness 
as our history offers in establishment of the collective wisdom 
of the people — a wisdom that has steadily grown in the estima- 
tion, not only of our own statesmen, but in that of the rulers 
and philosophers of the whole world. 

In our universal sense of absolute security; in the un- 
molested enjoyment of prevailing liberty under a government 
so strong, yet so gentle that we fail to feel the weight of its 
benign existence, we the people, who owe what we are^ as a 
nation, to this constitution, know too little, even of these 
amendments, that every American citizen and every American 
child should have by heart. 

AMENDMENTS 
Article I 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the government for redress of grievances. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 541 

But for religious intolerance, there would have been few, 
if any, Tories in America. The Bible's God needs no belittle- 
ment by a mortal law to secure an insincere support. He 
whose outstretched hand showered this earth with its treas- 
ures, and holds the countless worlds of the universe in match- 
less harmony, calls on no puny power of frail humanity to help 
maintain His immutable rule. God does not need humanity; 
humanity needs Him. This is the voice of the constitution, 
disdaining the vain egotism of the church needing state sup- 
port, and leaving, for all time, to individual conscience the 
worshipful adoration of that God ; the seeking of His support. 
The consequence is, a country of churches, and a profound, 
underlying religious sentiment that keeps pace with its grow- 
ing intelligence and makes the non-state-supported church the 
strongest police power the country owns, not to speak of its 
character culture, its moral upbuilding, its constant and count- 
less leadings to a higher and happier life. 

Those great levers and bulwarks of liberty — free speech 
and a free press — can never be encroached upon. But there 
is a vast difference between liberty and license, or rather the 
licentiousness of utterance and publication. The exercise of 
the right cannot be abridged ; its abuse is punishable. Written 
falsehood is libel; spoken, is slander. All of the states have 
laws imposing heavy penalties for either. Besides, the injured 
party can recover personal damages therefor. No public meet- 
ing of the people can ever be prevented, or dispersed, no 
matter what it is held for, if it be peaceable. 

The right of petition herein provided for has been so highly 
regarded that many of our most eminent statesmen have, as a 
matter of constitutional duty, presented petitions, when the 
granting of what was asked for they opposed, but would not 
refuse to present the petition. 

Article II 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state 
the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 



542 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

Every one has the right to bear arms, but not concealed. 
In all of the states, the pernicious practice of carrying con- 
cealed weapons is severely punished. 

A well-regulated militia saves the danger and expense of a 
standing army of magnitude, and at the same time furnishes 
the ready source to marshal a trained body of soldiers, if a 
sudden necessity demands a military force. "War is always to 
be dreaded, and should be the last resort of every nation, but 
the best preventive of this supreme evil is the ability to carry 
it on. 

Article III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without 
the consent of the owner; nor in time of war but in a manner to be pre- 
scribed by law. 

This clause was due to the exasperating experience of the 
colonies preceding the Revolution, In peace or war, the quar- 
tering of soldiers in private houses has never been and prob- 
ably never will be done by our government. Even in war, the 
laws provide for just compensation, and against any unreason- 
able inconvenience to the owner. 

Article IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, 
and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath 
or aflSrmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and 
the persons or things to be seized. 

No officer, simply because he is an oiScer, has the right to 
search a house, or lay his hands on a person, their papers, or 
effects. Before this can be done, some one must file a written 
affidavit before a judge, justice of the peace, or other judicial 
officer, setting forth the offense he complains of, the name of 
the person charged with its commission, or the papers or 
effects he claims the right to have seized, and a particular 
description of the place to be searched. If such judicial officer 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 543 

believes there is probable cause for the complaint, he issues 
and signs what is called a warrant to some officer. Then, and 
not until then, can the officer act under it. ^uch officer must 
read, or let the party charged read this warrant. He must 
show his lawful authority before he acts. Otherwise, he sub- 
jects himself to prosecution; ^limself and his bondsmen to a 
civil suit for damages, and gives the party whom he attempts 
to seize, or whose house he attempts to search, the right to 
resist, by proper force, his action. 

Article V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual 
service in time of war and public danger; nor shall any person be subject 
for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall 
be compelled in any criminal ease to be a witness against himself, nor to 
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor 
shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. 

Except as to the forces named, which are governed by 
military law, no one can be tried for a crime until after 
indictment by a grand jury. An indictment is a very par- 
ticular, written statement of the time, place, and circumstances 
of the offense, signed by the foreman of the grand jury, and 
made by this body, which consists of not less than twelve, nor 
more than twenty-three persons, after examining the witnesses 
in regard thereto. It must be so full and careful in statement 
that the accused can make his defense with all reasonable 
knowledge and ability. 

No one can be tried for the same offense twice, even if 
after acquittal therefor he confesses his guilt. Nor can he be 
coerced or tortured into confessing his guilt. 

By due process of law is meant, not only the laws of the 
United States and the states, but the common law, the regular 
course of procedure in the courts, and all the formalities 
whereby one is given due notice of what claim is asserted 



544 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEKS 

against him, and opportunity to make his defense and assert 
his rights. 

Private property can be taken for public uses, such as court 
and school houses, streets, etc. But before this can be done, a 
petition to condemn it must be filed in a competent court; the 
case must be tried by a jury of his fellow citizens ; they must 
assess the value of that property, and that value must be paid 
to that owner before he can be dispossessed of his property. 

If a man 's property is destroyed or injured by a mob, or in 
a riot, he can recover the value thereof from the municipality 
that fails to protect it. If he have no property but his hands, 
is a laborer or mechanic, and is prevented from earning an 
honest living by lawful labor by some combination of men, it 
seems that this would be such a deprivation of liberty, of the 
immunities guaranteed to every citizen, that he should be able 
to recover for the loss the same as an owner for loss of or 
injury to property. 

Article VI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy 
and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the 
crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 
ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the 
accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have com- 
pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assist- 
ance of counsel for his defense. 

This is to prevent the long imprisonment of the poor who 
are not able to give a bond for their appearance at the trial 
of the crime they are accused of. It prevents taking one out 
of his own community and being tried in one where prejudice 
may exist against him, or greater difficulty occasioned in get- 
ting his witnesses. It prevents any secrecy that would disable 
him from ample opportunity to prepare his defense ; from any 
unfair surprises whereby injustice can be done him. No testi- 
mony of an absent witness can be taken against him. Every 
witness must face the accused on the trial. Without expense 
to him, the court must compel the attendance of all witnesses 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 545 

he desires, and if he is unable to employ a lawyer, the court 
will appoint one to make his defense. 

No country makes such liberal and generous provision as 
this to secure a fair trial for one accused of crime. 

Article VII 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United 
States than according to the rules of common law. 

This secures the sacred right of trial by jury in civil cases, 
as well as criminal, except where the amount involved is under 
the small value named. 

The verdict of a jury can be reviewed on appeal, but is so 
highly regarded that strict rules have been adopted whereby 
this can be done, even by the supreme court of the country. 
No verdict will be set aside, or modified, unless the calmness 
of experienced judicial authority finds palpable injustice has 
been done. 

Article VIII 

Excessive bail shaU not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

To prevent injustice being done the poor, and for the sake 
of humanity, the barbarities that history tells of in despotic 
governments are forbidden in this country. 

Article IX 

The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be 
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Fearing that some inalienable right of the people might 
have been omitted in their enumeration, this comprehensive 
clause was added in favor of the people whose supreme source 
the constitution acknowledges for its powers. 



546 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Article X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or 
to the people. 

In the second article of the Articles of Confederation, the 
word "expressly" appeared before the word "delegated/' in 
the clause conferring powers on what was attempted to be 
made a national authority. This denied all implied powers, 
and was a constant source of weakness and embarrassment. 
This clause, so worded, removes all question as to the exercise 
of such powers by the national government. At the same time 
it leaves to the states, or to the people, every power not 
expressly delegated to the national government, and neces- 
sarily implied from those enumerated powers. 

Article XI. See page 531. 
Article XII. See pages 510-12. 

Article XIII — Section 1 

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for 
crime, vrhereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within 
the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

This was a "war measure," and it made this a free country 
in name and fact, and wiped out the greatest cause of conten- 
tion that had existed between the sections from the very foun- 
dation of the government. 

Article XIV— Section 1 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state 
wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall 
abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; 
nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 547 

due process of law, nor deny to any person ■within its jurisdiction the equal 
protection of the laws. 

Section 2 

Eepresentatives shall be appointed among the several states according to 
their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each 
state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any 
election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the 
United States, representatives in congress, th^ executive or judicial oflScers 
of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of 
the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and 
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for partici- 
pation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall 
be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall 
bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
such state. 

Section 3 

No person shall be a senator or representative in congress, or elector of 
president or vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the 
United States, or under any state, who having previously taken an oath as 
a member of congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member 
of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, 
to support the constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in 
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the 
enemies thereof. But congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, 
remove such disability. 

Section 4 

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, 
including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services 
in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither 
the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation 
incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or 
any claim, for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, 
obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5 

Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the 
provisions of this article. 

This amendment was passed for the protection of the 
emancipated slaves. It went beyond application merely to 



548 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

them, and made the same prohibition apply to the states as to 
abridging the privileges and immunities of citizens that there- 
tofore applied only to the national government. It declares 
who shall be citizens, but not who shall vote. That is left still 
to the states, except as to the prohibition in the next amend- 
ment. Each state can make a property, or educational, or any 
other qualification for the voter, so that it applies to all alike, 
regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

A penalty is placed upon engaging in insurrection or 
rebellion against the government, after having taken an oath 
to support our constitution. This was done to punish those 
who had so offended in the seceding states, yet whom this gov- 
ernment did not feel justified in accusing of treason, or who 
might so offend hereafter, yet not be guilty of treason as 
defined in the constitution. Such disabilities were removed 
from every one who applied therefor, and many of our most 
loyal citizens are among this class of men. This forever wiped 
out the debts of the seceding states, and put beyond all ques- 
tion the debts incurred, or to be incurred by the national gov- 
ernment in its own maintenance, and in caring for those who 
had suffered to sustain it. 

One of the intentions of this amendment was to secure the- 
right of suffrage to the emancipated slaves in order to obtain 
the largest possible representation in our congress. It did not 
succeed. 

There is much in the second section that yet awaits inter- 
pretation by the supreme court. 

Article XV — Section 1 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 
or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of race, color, 
or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2 

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 549 

This amendment was the last of the **war measures," and 
was adopted to settle all question as to the right of the negro 
to vote, the same as any other citizen. It compels all restric- 
tions or qualifications as to voting to be made to apply the 
same to the white man as to the black man, or the man of any 
other color or race. 

This and the previous section makes the Chinese, or the 
sons of any other race who are born in this country citizens, 
and entitled to the same rights to vote, the same rights in all 
respects as those of Anglo-Saxon, or other descent. 




CHAPTER XVII 

THE PEESIDENT'S CABINET 

^0 PART of Washington's wise and practical states- 
manship has received more signal historical indorse- 
ment than his creation of the president's cabinet, 
His action has proved equal to a constitutional 
provision. His successors have followed his example, until the 
cabinet has grown from three to nine members, and become 
such a distinguished and important part of our governmental 
machinery that, by act of congress, January 19, 1886, its 
members may succeed to the presidency itself. It has uni- 
formly been composed of well-known statesmen of the country. 
No chapter of American history makes a more glorious record 
than that which tells of the achievements and services of its 
members. 

Neither the constitution, nor any law of congress obligated 
the creation of the cabinet. The president was left at liberty to 
administer his great office without the advice of any such body. 
Washington's action displays that absence of egotism, thai 
aversion to arbitrary authority that has prompted so many of 
the world's greatest to crave and seize the entire control of 
the government they were called to administer. 

Many members of the convention feared a single and 
desired a plural executive; that is, a presidency composed of 
three or more men of co-equal authority. Others, educated by 
the experience and utility of the king's council from the time 
of Alfred the Great, down, and the governor's council in their 
respective colonies from their origin, favored a single executive 
with a president's council, clothed with authority to control his 
action. 

Washington, while the most self-reliant of men, respected 
these views, and with that unselfishness that characterized his 

550 



THE PEESIDENT'S CABINET 551 

whole life, sought the counsel of the ablest, regardless of their 
political views, in the discharge of his great responsibilities, 
and called to his cabinet the three great statesmen — Thomas 
Jefferson, secretary of state ; Alexander Hamilton, secretary of 
the treasury; and Henry Knox, secretary of war. 

The cabinet now holds regular meetings, and while the 
president is held to sole responsibility for his administration, 
and can follow or disregard the advice of his cabinet as he sees 
fit, it is well known that its advice is potential in the conduct 
of the government. 

The department of foreign affairs was established July 27, 
1789, and became the department of state September 15, 1789. 

The department of war and the navy was established 
August 7, 1789; the navy as a separate department, April 30, 
1798. 

The treasury department was established September 2, 
1789. 

The department of justice was established September 24, 
1789, but its head, the attorney-general, did not become a 
member of the cabinet until 1814; had neither office nor clerks, 
nor was required to reside at the seat of government until that 
time. 

The postoffice department was a part of the treasury until' 
1829, having been established as a part thereof September 22, 
1789. On the former date its head became a cabinet officer. 

The interior department was established and its head 
became a cabinet officer March 3, 1849. 

The department of agriculture was established and its head 
became a cabinet officer February 9, 1889. 

The department of commerce and labor was established 
and its head became a cabinet officer January 17, 1903. 

The heads of these departments rank in the order given 
above, and their duties are as follows: 

The secretary of state conducts all of our foreign affairs; 
all correspondence with and instructions to our ambassadors, 
ministers, and other officials abroad. He initiates and, after 
ratification by the senate, keeps in his custody all treaties with 



553 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

other nations. He preserves and publishes all laws, resolutions, 
and other enactments of congress, and the proclamations of the 
president. He has charge of the great seal of the United 
States, and affixes it to all documents that require authentica- 
tion. He grants all passports to our citizens going abroad, and 
if one of them is wronged abroad he must seek redress through 
the secretary of state. 

He has many assistant secretaries, and his department is 
divided into seven distinct bureaus, each of which gives special 
attention to some particular field of our foreign affairs. He 
makes an annual report to congress of all done under his 
department, at home and abroad, furnishing to the manufac- 
turer and merchant the most valuable aid in the development 
and extension of our commerce. 

The secretary of the treasury controls and manages the 
financial affairs of the government; the collection of its reve- 
nues and payment of its debts; the coining of its money; the 
engraving of its bonds ; and, in short, everything relating to its 
income and the satisfaction of its obligations. He also has 
charge of the inspection of all steam vessels, whether plying on 
the ocean or the rivers of the country; of light-houses; of 
marine hospitals; of the life-saving service, and the planning 
and construction of all public buildings. His department is 
divided into many divisions, the heads of each of which have 
often become deservedly famous for their serviceable work. 

The treasurer of the United States receives and pays out all 
raoneys, whether deposited in the treasury at the capital, or in 
the designated depositories in the leading cities of the country. 
The register of the treasury is the bookkeeper of the govern- 
ment. The comptroller of the currency has charge of the vast 
national banking sy!?tem. The commissioner of internal reve- 
nue, the commissioner of customs, the commissioner of naviga- 
tion, the supervising architect, the superintendent of the 
bureau of engraving and printing, the superintendent of the 
life-saving service, the director of the mint, all belong to and 
come under the control of this department. 

The secretary of war has charge of the army and all the 



THE PEESIDENT'S CABINET 553 

military affairs of the government. In addition, the construc- 
tion of bridges, breakwaters, docks, and harbors; the improve- 
ment of all rivers so as to make them navigable; the construc- 
tion of forts, land ordnance and arms come under the direction 
of this department. 

The chiefs of the many heads of the bureaus in this depart- 
ment are : the adjutant-general, who conducts all its corre- 
spondence and issues its orders; the quartermaster-general, 
who provides the clothing and like supplies for the army ; the 
commissary-general, who purchases its provisions; the surgeon- 
general, the head of the medical staff; the chief of engineers, 
who superintends the construction of docks, forts, harbors, and 
the improvement of rivers ; the judge-advocate-general, its law 
officer, whose duties are similar to those of the state's attorney, 
but confined to courts martial and army affairs ; and the chief 
signal officer. This department also has charge of the United 
States Military Academy at West Point. 

The secretary of the navy has charge of that arm of the 
government's power that has assumed such prominence and 
importance in recent years. His department is divided into 
eight bureaus: yards and docks, construction, engineering, 
equipment and recruiting, navigation, ordnance, provisions and 
clothing, and medicine and surgery. The Naval Academy at 
Annapolis and the Naval Observatory at Washington City come 
under his control. 

The secretary of the interior has control of the internal 
affairs of the government. All of its public lands that have 
passed from the nation's ownership have been disposed of 
under him to settlers, soldiers, for public schools, colleges, and 
railroads. The pension bureau, the patent office, the commis- 
sioner of Indian affairs, the commissioner of railroads, the 
superintendent of the census, the commissioner of the general 
land office, the bureaus of education and of the geological sur- 
vey, all come under his control. 

The postmaster-general has charge of the immense postal 
system of the country, postmasters and postal employes, and 
everything connected with this branch of the public service 



554 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS TEAMEKS 

that is the most familiar of all to every citizen of the country, 
as well as one of the most serviceable. 

The attorney-general is the head of the government's law 
department, appears for it in the supreme court, and directs 
the United States attorneys and marshals in the discharge of 
their duties. 

The secretary of agriculture looks after this the greatest of 
all the employments in which our people are engaged. Its 
bureaus investigate the animal, bird, and insect life that injure 
fruits, grain, and other products of the soil, how to exterminate 
them ; the diseases of cattle, how to prevent and eradicate 
them ; and the growth of all sorts of provision and clothing 
products, as well as flowers and ornamental shrubbery. They 
make tests of the soil so as to inform the farmer what it is best 
adapted to produce, and how to most favorably cultivate it. 

The weather bureau that has become such a valuable aid to 
our whole people, to the farmer, the merchant, and the mariner, 
is under the control of this department. 

The secretary of commerce and labor is the latest addition 
to the cabinet. His duties are to investigate and inform the 
people as to the conduct of our commerce at home and abroad, 
and how best to develop our commercial supremacy; also, to 
investigate the great questions pertaining to labor, that our 
country's laborers of every class may be the most efficient, best 
paid, and happiest of any land. 

Under the control of the cabinet officers come many other 
bureaus, commissioners, and officials whose duties subserve the 
interests of the whole people. The department of labor, to 
collect statistics and particulars as to wages, strikes, and the 
operations of all our mechanical employments. The civil 
service commission, to eradicate the spoils system that has been 
so hurtful to the public service, and to make honesty and com- 
petency the qualifications for public office. The librarian of 
congress, who issues all copyrights and has charge of the mag- 
nificent library of the nation at the capital. The fish commis- 
sion, to stock the streams and promote their replenishment with 
the most desirable species of fish. The printing office, which 



THE PEESIDENT'S CABINET 555 

does all the engraving and printing of the government, and its 
publications. The interstate commerce commission, to regulate 
and enforce fairness in freight rates to every shipper, great or 
small. 

Thus, it will be seen, that the duties of the members of the 
president 's cabinet bring them into daily and intimate contact 
with every feature of the domestic, industrial, and commercial 
life of the country, and make that cabinet of indispensable 
value to him and the people in the administration of the affairs 
of our government. 



1 




CHAPTER XVIII 

CONCLUSION 

|HIS constitution establishes a system of govern- 
ment such as the world never before knew. 

It creates three separate and distinct depart- 
ments — the legislative, executive, and judicial — 
each independent of the other, yet so interblended as to form 
a symmetrical whole. The legislative department makes all of 
the laws ; the executive department sees to their execution ; the 
judicial department interprets them. 

The constitution creates a system of governments within a 
government, alike interblended into one harmonious whole, yet 
each separate from and independent, not only of each other, 
but of the national or supreme government. 

The president of the United States, with the concurrence of 
the senate, can appoint all of the executive and judicial officers 
of the national government, and in the event that congress 
should declare war, can compel every citizen, if need be, to go 
into the army. But he cannot appoint or command a single 
officer in a state nor exercise any control otherwise over its 
citizens. 

Congress can levy taxes to carry on any war it may declare, 
or pay for any public improvement it undertakes ; it can decide 
how much gold or silver shall be put into a dollar, and how 
many pounds of corn or wheat a bushel shall contain; it can say 
what shall be the weights and measures in every county and in 
every state, but it cannot enact any law relating to a county, a 
city, a township, or any other municipal division of a state, nor 
any law affecting any charter granted to a corporation by the 
state authorities. 

The national government can instantly order the soldiers of 
its regular army to protect the free movements of a mail wagon, 

556 



CONCLUSION 



557 



and its officers to arrest any citizen who stops or interferes with 
the mails, but it can do nothing in the case of a riot in a city, 
no matter of how great proportions, where the disturbance does 
not affect the operations of the national government, except 
when the governor or state legislature applies for national aid. 

The citizen traveling abroad carries a Federal passport, and 
is protected by the national government. He is known by 
foreign nations as a citizen of the United States. Such govern- 
ments have no official knowledge of the existence of our dif- 
ferent states. If the person or property of one of our citizens 
is molested abroad, the whole power of the national govern- 
ment, its army and navy, will be employed to have justice done 
him. But, if his person or property be affected at home, he 
must apply to the state government for redress for his griev- 
ance and for the establishment of liis rights. 

If a railroad is entirely within a state, the national govern- 
ment has nothing to do with the rate of charges for freight or 
passengers, but the moment that railroad extends beyond the 
state line, all it carries becomes interstate commerce, and the 
national government can compel it to give the same rates to 
every shipper and prevent it from any combination with other 
roads that would be hostile to the best interests of the people. 

Under the constitution there is this gradation in our gav- 
ernment : 

The national government decides upon and conducts war 
and makes peace; it regulates and attends to all our foreign 
relations ; it controls and disposes of all of our public lands ; it 
directs the operations of our army and navy ; it establishes and 
maintains lighthouses, custom houses, weather bureaus, post- 
offices, and post roads ; it determines what duties shall be paid 
upon all merchandise brought from another country into this, 
and it regulates our coinage, weights, and measures. 

The state government maintains the general peace and order 
of the people within the state. The enactment of all laws 
applying to the whole state, and under which all local, cor- 
porate, and municipal bodies act, and to which they are subject, 
and the qualifications that one shall possess to enjoy the rigut 



558 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

of suffrage, except as to race, color, or previous condition of 
servitude, are in the exclusive and independent authority of the 
state. All domestic relations, marriage and divorce, inherit- 
ance, hovs?" property shall descend and be distributed, and the 
legion of personal rights are solely under state control. 

There is the further subdivision which the state has exclu- 
sive power to make, of counties, townships, and districts for 
school and other purposes. 

In Europe in the same extent of territory as is covered by 
the United States, are many nationalities as different in speech, 
thought, social habit, and legislation as in name. To bind them 
into one consolidated government whose laws are uniform, 
would be impossible. They might be united into a federal 
system. But racial and local peculiarities, prejudices, and 
predilections would have to be recognized. 

Latitude and longitude will, in time, make the same dif- 
ferences here. Already there are distinct types. Physiognomy 
marks the people of distant places, of different sections. Idiom, 
provincialism, pronunciation, and accent, already differentiate 
and readily distinguish the several states. Even the most 
learned educators, leaving their native localities, and having 
lived for years in another, return to note and comment upon 
the provincialism of their native homes and the inability of 
■their old neighbors to understand the new part of the country 
where these leaders in education have experienced a new 
development. The very stars in their courses lead and light us 
to diverse lives and sentiments. Nature moulds its peculiar 
characteristics. 

The grandeur of national power appeals to pride and 
cupidity alike. Its advantages in commercial conquest attract 
sordid as well as patriotic interests. Consolidation in capital 
and labor, in brain and brawn, offer ever-present inducements 
to individual gain. And the selfish hope, so delusive, of getting 
to the top, and of reaping the fruits of such an advantage, 
blinds to the truth that the common good is the best good of all 
and for all. 

The dead sameness of the benumbed giant, China, teaches 



CONCLUSION 559 

the fateful lesson of too great uniformity; it exemplifies intel- 
lectual, social, and governmental consolidation carried to the 
point where paralysis prostrates the energies of the whole 
people, despite high intellectual or educational training. 

We must have a people that is homogeneous to a great 
extent, to preserve an enduring nationality. This the business 
and social admixture of our people under a national unity gives. 

We must have a people that is heterogeneous to a large 
extent, — a people of diverse occupations, different social habits, 
different mental characteristics, — to promote the rivalry that 
begets progressive development by comparison and contrast. 
This the preservation of the state autonomy, the state sov- 
ereignty, gives. 

The recognition of these great truths teaches the necessity 
of cherishing the distinct independence of the states in their 
reserved rights and powers, as well as of cherishing the 
national system in its delegated rights and powers. 

More than three score years of debate, ending in the arbi- 
trament of arms, has it taken to settle the inviolable integrity 
of the Union. The danger now is the other way. State and 
local sovereignty is as sacred, as important to the liberty and 
well-being of the people as national sovereignty. Sentiment 
is superior to law; there is not a state or a city — scarce a 
hamlet, or township — in all America but what nominates and 
elects its officials on national lines, regardless of local knowl- 
edge of men and local needs and issues/ v The result is that our 
local and municipal governments are far inferior to those of 
monarchies and are sources of universal complaint, of constant 
menace. There is need, and urgent need, of a return to the 
local pride and interest of the early day, and of a complete 
divorce between the choosings of national and local officials. 

The thrusting of the national party hand into local elec- 
tions is as hostile to the public good and public safety as would 
be thrusting the mailed hand of national power into the 
reserved rights of the states and the people. This political 
tendency is effecting in sentiment a practical consolidation of 
our composite government, against which the wise voices of 



560 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

our fathers, of the constitution they gave us, of our own vital 
interests, and of all history are raised in solemn and vigorous 
protest. 

Our government is one of cheeks and balances. Its whole 
spirit is to make haste slowly. The seniority of the senate, the 
manner of its selection, fits it to stand as a barrier against the 
impulsive action that is characteristic of popular assemblages. 
The solemn duty of the president to investigate and approve or 
disapprove of the work of the two houses, and the requirement 
of a two-thirds vote to override his veto, combine to stimulate 
calm, thoughtful reflection and to make our representative 
rulers legislate for permanent rather than for present results. 

Then comes that august, impartial tribunal, which must be 
composed of the highest, best educated intelligence of the 
country; that tribunal whose permanence guarantees the near- 
est approach to absolute impartiality that man can devise; 
then comes that embodiment of character and culture, the 
supreme court, to measure every law, national or state, by the 
inflexible standard of the constitution. 

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. That vigilance, 
our constitution enforces by solemn oath upon every one who 
officiates at its altar. The individual exercise thereof is the 
free, yet bounden duty of every citizen. The supremacy of the 
law, its rigid obedience, and its righteous observance, is the 
safety of all, especially the common people. 

We are told that a fairy once gave a man the power to 
raise Satan from his dread abode, but Satan would not go back 
without dragging with him the luckless wretch who raised him. 
He who appeals to and raises lawlessness to accomplish his 
ends, raises the demon that will only down with the destruction 
of the rights, the very blood-bought liberties that bless a law- 
abiding people. 

The English constitution is unwritten. It is made up, as is 
the English common law, by custom, usage, and judicial deci- 
sions. The American constitution is written, yet much of it 
may be called unwritten, for much exists that is as great a part 
of it as what is written. 



CONCLUSION 561 

Sir James Mackintosh says, "Constitutions grow, they are 
not made." The American constitution has grown by amend- 
ment, by usage, by judicial interpretation. The decisions of the 
supreme court construing it are as much a part of that con- 
stitution as its written provisions. And that court has borne its 
supreme responsibility with righteous conscientiousness. 

Back of all, supporting all, securing all, come the great 
people whose government this is. Upon their universal intelli- 
gence the whole structure rests. The supreme duty of inter- 
ested patriotism is to promote an understanding by that people 
of the principles and of the history of this beneficent govern- 
ment, the most beneficent of all governments. Promote this 
understanding by having the people study this government for 
themselves. As we are an independent people, let there be an 
independent, universal knowledge of our country's constitu- 
tion. Let it be the litany of childhood, an essential in the 
curriculum of every school, and the study of age. 

Not until the Civil War was there settled the controversy 
that had grown in bitterness over the question of our national 
sovereignty under the constitution, then for all time, was it 
established that the national authority was the supreme 
authority in the United States — that this was an indivisible 
Union, as well as a Union of indestructible states. 

The differences of opinion on this subject were not only 
earnest, but honest; they were the outgrowth of heredity, 
interest, culture, and environment ; the conviction forced by 
the peculiar situation, and the points of view of the divergent 
adherents. 

No political party, and no particular section can claim 
exclusive loyalty to the idea of national sovereignty. Jackson, 
the great Democratic leader, in 1832, asserted the supremacy 
of the national government, with no less vigor than did 
Lincoln, the great Republican leader, in 1861. The "heresy 
of secession" has not been confined to that section that backed 
its belief with its blood. 

When, in 1803, the "Louisiana Purchase" was effected by 



562 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

President Jefferson, it was advocated by many northern states. 
Judge Thomas M. Cooley says: "The Federal leaders did not 
stop at cavils ; they insisted that the "unconstitutional extension 
of territory was in effect a dissolution of the Union, so that 
they were at liberty to contemplate a plan for final disrup- 
tion." 

It was stoutly charged, and long believed, though the public 
measures advocated by the convention contradict the charge, 
that the celebrated "Hartford Convention," in 1814, attended 
by representatives from Massachusetts, Ehode Island, Con- 
necticut, and some from Vermont and New Hampshire, was 
for this express purpose, on account of the bitter opposition to 
the war of 1812 then raging with Great Britain. 

Before the unfortunate Civil War, the extreme wing of the 
"Abolition Party" denounced the constitution as a "covenant 
with death, and a league with hell." 

The pendulum of public sentiment in every section has, at 
times, swung too far in certain directions, and the rash 
impulses of the hour have made eminent and honest thinkers, 
who were liberty-loving patriots, rush into expressions and 
actions that they afterwards regretted and condemned. Sober, 
second thought, time and experience, have ever taught the 
greater value of obeying and cherishing the constitution, of 
recognizing its inestimable worth, of listening with patience 
to even the prejudices of the different sections, of letting 
reason rule, of looking at both sides of a question with tolerant 
spirit, and of upholding the right to freedom of thought and 
opinion. 

No common thought ever dominated any section without 
some basis of right and reason. Those in that section neces- 
sarily understand the situation better than those outside of it. 
They can learn from the criticism of others, that what they 
look upon as benefits are evils, and the others can learn that 
what they advocate from their own standpoint as beneficial 
may in reality be erroneous and hurtful to the common weal. 

Applying epithets to opponents is far from offering evi- 



CONCLUSION 563 

denee that the opponents are the just objects of opprobrium. 
Invective is not argument. Denunciation most often demon- 
strates naught but heated feeling. Such things generally 
recoil upon those uttering them, and convince the undecided 
that lack of argument has driven the speakers to the rancor of 
passion rather than to the language of reason. The cold steel 
of truthful logic will cleave its way to conviction, when the 
white-heated blade of ill-temper will only flatten and the blow 
will only send out a shower of sparks and smoke to fall in 
grimy ashes, burning or soiling all they touch. 

All this inflammatory rhetoric, all these harsh charges 
against those of distant and different parts of the country, 
whose judgments and opinions run counter to those of some 
one locality, had better have been birthless. Such vocabulary 
should never be known in advocacy of or opposition to what 
other equal citizens deem best for the common good, it belongs 
not to this enlightened age of refinement, it should never 
appear outside the circles where brute force brandishes its 
bludgeon. 

In the Louisiana Purchase, the greatest of the leaders of 
the Federalists of that time, Alexander Hamilton, gave his 
strong arm to the support of his life-long political foe, Thomas 
Jefferson, and thereby rose to the pinnacle of his illustrious 
career as a patriot and statesman. Not one to-day would deny 
that the clause, ''Provide for the common defense, promote the 
general welfare" of the country, gave ample power to congress 
to consummate the purchase of the territory that made our 
Union bound both sides of the Mississippi, and united in 
political destiny the land that One greater than man had set 
aside for a perpetual unity. 

Right and wrong have marked every mortal movement, 
every great organization, every government of mankind, and 
will unto the end of time. The steady, upward step of civiliza- 
tion has had, and will have, many a backward slip, many a 
wrong direction. The great governmental lessons of our whole 
history are, unity in diversity; learn from one another; cling 



564 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

to the dual kinship of everlasting national sovereignty and of 
everlasting state sovereignty, as marked, bounded, and defined 
in the constitution. 

This complex government is a composite government, the 
theory of which has passed experiment and become a tested 
and accomplished fact. The question of the hour, present and 
to come, as Franklin put it, is. How to administer that estab- 
lished system. A more opportune event could not have come to 
put the cap-stone on this accomplished fact than the late war 
with Spain. 

We saw the illustrious son of Illinois, the present speaker 
of our house of representatives, whose watchful guardianship 
of the nation's treasury had lifted him above being merely one 
::tate's representative, offer a resolution, voicing America's 
proclamation to the world that monarchical oppression must 
cease on the shores of the "Western Hemisphere. In support of 
the nation's policy of humanity, Ave saw parties fade and parti- 
sans blend in one patriotic body, endorsing that resolution. We 
saw that body place fifty millions of money into the hands of 
the embodiment of the country's conscience in the presidential 
chair, and we heard the unbroken voice of the country applaud 
the action. 

We saw on Cuban shores a stalwart form, as formerly, clad 
in Confederate gray. In Havana's harbor, floated in friendly 
visit, an American man-of-war. Suddenly, from beneath that 
ship burst the roar of an exploding mine. Through the rising 
smoke and flame, that enveloped our shattered ship, we saw the 
Confederate gray fade into, the Union blue, and with one hand 
holding aloft his country's flag, with the other, Ave saw Vir- 
ginia's son of historic name, wipe out the last vestige of Mason 
and Dixon's line. The roar of that mine had not ceased to 
ring in the ears of a startled nation when it was reechoed from 
Manila Bay, where, side by side with Vermont's Dewey, 
Georgia's Bagby stood with the SAVord of the "New South" 
cleaving a new record of common honor for a common country. 
The loyal allegiance of the South, the same as that of the 



CONCLUSION 565 

North, was written in the mingling blood of her heroic sons on 
every field and sea where united valor told of the reincarnation 
of the old-new nation, and the perpetual cementing of a paci- 
fied people. That promise and prophecy, "We, the people of 
the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, do 
ordain and establish this constitution for ourselves and our 
posterity," had become a realization, and the great debate as 
to the perpetuity of this almost perfected nationality had 
ended. 



APPENDIX 

DECLAEATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

In Congress, July 4, 1776 

A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OP 
AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with an- 
other, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and 
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, 
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should de- 
clare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident: — That all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
That, to secure these rights, governm_ents are instituted among men, deriv- 
ing their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever 
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right 
of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, 
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such 
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happi- 
ness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established 
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all 
experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils 
are sufferabie, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which 
they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under 
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such gov- 
ernment, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has 
been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity 
which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The 
history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated in- 
juries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an 
absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to 
a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for 
the public good, 

566 



APPENDIX 567 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing 
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be 
obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to 
them. ~ 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large dis- 
tricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representa- 
tion in the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to 
tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfort- 
able, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole 
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with 
manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others 
to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have 
returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in 
the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and 
convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that 
purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners; refusing 
to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the condi- 
tions of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to 
laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their 
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent thither swarms of 
officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the 
consent of our legislatures; 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, 
the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to 
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving Ms assent to 
their acts of pretended legislation: 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders 
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States; 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent; 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences; 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring prov- 
ince, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boun- 



568 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

daries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introduc- 
ing the same absolute rule into these colonies; 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and 
altering fundamentally, the forms of our governments; 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested 
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protec- 
tion, and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and 
destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to 
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with 
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most bar- 
barous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, 
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their 
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored 
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, 
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the 
most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by re- 
peated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which 
may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We 
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to 
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of 
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed 
to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the 
ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would in- 
evitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have 
been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, 
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, 
as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the Eepresentatives of the United States of America, 
in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the 
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the au- 
thority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 
That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde- 
pendent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British 
crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of 
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and 
independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, con- 



APPENDIX 



569 



tract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things 
which independent states may of right do. And, for the support of this 
declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor. 

The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and 
signed by the following members: 



Josiah Bartlett, 
William Whipple, 

Samuel Adams, 
John Adams, 



John Hancock 

New Hampshire 

Matthew Thornton. 

Massachusetts Bay 

Eobert Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry. 



Stephen Hopkins, 



Bhode Island 

William Ellery. 



Eoger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntingdon, 



Connecticut 



William Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 



William Floyd, 
Philip Livingston, 



New YorTc 



Francis Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 



New Jersey 



Eichard Stockton, 
John Witherspoon, 
Francis Hopkinson, 

Eobert Morris, 
Benjamin Eush, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
John Morton, 
George Clymer, 



John Hart, 
Abraham Clark. 



Pennsylvania 



James Smith, 
George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
George Eoss. 



570 



THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 



Caesar Eodney, 
George Eead, 

Samuel Chase, 
William Paea, 



George Wythe, 
Eichard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, 

William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 



Edward Eutledge, 
Thomas He;fward, Jr., 



Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 



Delaware 

Thomas McKean. 

Maryland 

Thomas Stone, 

Charles Carroll, of CarroUton. 

Virginia 

Thomas Nelson, Jr., 
Francis Lightf oot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

North Carolina 

John Penn. 

South Carolina 

Thomas Lynch, Jr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia 

George Walton. 



AETICLES OF CONFEDEEATION AND PEEPETUAL UNION 
BETWEEN THE STATES. 

To all to whom these presents shall come, we, the undersigned delegates 
of the States affixed to our names, send greeting : 

Whereas, the delegates of the United States of America, in congress 
assembled, did, on the fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, and in the second year of 
the Independence of America, agree to certain Articles of Confederation 
and perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts 
Bay, Ehode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, and Georgia, in the words following, viz.: 
Articles of Confederation 'and perpetual Union between the States of 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Ehode Island and Providence 
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 



APPENDIX 571 

Article I. The style of this confederacy shall be, "The United States 
of America. ' ' 

Art. II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, 
and every power, jurisdiction and right, vphich is not by this confederation 
expressly delegated to the United States in congress assembled. 

Akt. III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league 
of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of 
their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare; binding themselves 
to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon 
them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, er any 
other pretence whatever. 

Art. IV. Section 1. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friend- 
ship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, 
the free inhabitants of each of these states, paupers, vagabonds, and fugi- 
tives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immuni- 
ties of free citizens in the several states; and the people of each state shall 
have free ingress and egress to and from any other state, and shall enjoy 
therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same 
duties, impositions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively, 
provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the 
removal of property imported into any state to any other state, of which 
the owner is an inhabitant; provided, also, that no imposition, duties, or 
restriction, shall be laid by any state on the property of the United States, 
or either of them. 

Sec. 2. If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or 
other high misdemeanor in any state, shall flee from justice, and be found 
in any of the United States, he shall, upon the demand of the governor 
or executive power of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, and 
removed to the state having jurisdiction of his offence. 

Sec. 3. Full faith and credit shall be given, in each of these states, 
to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates 
of every other state. 

Art. V. See. 1. For the more convenient management of the general 
interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in 
such a manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in 
congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power 
reserved to each state to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time 
within the year, and to send others in their stead, for the remainder of 
the year. 

Sec. 2. No state shall be represented in congress by less than two, 
nor more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being 
a delegate for more than three years, in any term of six years; nor shall 
any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the 



572 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, 
fees, or emolument of any kind. 

See. 3. Each state shall maintain its own delegates in any meeting of 
the states, and while they act as members of the committee of these states. 

Sec. 4. In determining questions in the United States in Congress 
assembled, each state shall have one vote. 

Sec. 5. Freedom of speech and debate in congress shall not be 
impeached or questioned in any court or place out of congress, and the 
members of congress shall be protected in their persons, from arrests and 
imprisonments during the time of their going to and from, and attendance 
on, congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. 

Art. VI. Sec. 1. No state, without the consent of the United States, 
in congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy 
from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty, with 
any king, prince, or state; nor shall any person holding any office of 
profit or trust under the United States, or any of them,, accept of any 
present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, 
prince, or foreign state; nor shall the United States, in congress assembled, 
or any of them, grant any title of nobility. 

Sec. 2. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confedera- 
tion, or alliance whatever, between them, without the consent of the United 
States, in congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which 
the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. 

Sec. 3. No state shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere 
with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United States, in 
congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any 
treaties already proposed by congress to the courts of France and Spain. 

Sec. 4. No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace, by any 
state, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary by the United 
States in congress assembled, for the defence of such state or its trade; 
nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any state in time of peace, 
except such number only as, in the judgment of the United States in con- 
gress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary 
for the defence of such state; but every state shall always keep up a 
well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, 
and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a 
due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, 
ammunition, and camp equipage. 

Sec. 5. No state shall engage in any war without the consent of the 
United States in congress assembled, unless such state be actually invaded 
by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being 
formed by some nation of Indians to invade such state, and the danger 
is so imminent as not to admit of a delay till the United States in congress 
assembled can be consulted; nor shall any state grant commissions to any 



APPENDIX 573 

ships nor vessels of war, or letters of marque or reprisal, except it be 
after a declaration of war by the United States in congress assembled, 
and then only against a kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, 
against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as 
shall be established by the United States, in congress assembled, unless 
such state be infested by pirates, in which ease vessels of war may be 
fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, 
or until the United States, in congress assembled, shall determine otherwise. 

Art. VII. When land forces are raised by any state for the common 
defence, all oflScers of, or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed 
by the legislature of each state respectively by whom such forces shall 
be raised, or in such manner as such state shall direct, and all vacancies 
shall be filled up by the state which first made the appointment. 

Art. VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be 
incurred for the common defence or general welfare, and allowed by the 
United States, in congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common 
treasury, which shall be supplied by the several states, in proportion to 
the value of all land within each state, granted to, or surveyed for, any 
person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall 
be estimated, according to such mode as the United States, in congress 
assembled, shall, from time to time, direct and appoint. The taxes for 
paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direc- 
tion of the legislatures of the several states, within the time agreed upon 
by the United States, in congress assembled. 

Art. IX. Sec. 1. The United States, in congress assembled, shall 
have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and 
war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article, of sending and 
receiving ambassadors; entering into treaties and alliances, provided that 
no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of 
the respective states shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and 
duties on foreigners, as their own people are subjected to, or from pro- 
hibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or com- 
modities whatsoever; of establishing rules for deciding, in all cases, what 
captures on land and water shall be legal and in what manner prizes 
taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States shall be 
divided or appropriated; of granting letters of marque and reprisal, in 
times of peace; appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies 
committed on the high seas, and establishing courts for receiving and 
determining finally appeals in all cases of captures; provided, that no 
member of congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. 

Sec. 2. The United States in congress assembled shall also be the last 
resort on appeal in aU disputes and ditferences now subsisting, or that 
hereafter may arise between two or more states concerning boundary, 
jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; which authority shall alwnys be 



574 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS PEAMEES 

exercised in the manner following: whenever the legislative or executive 
authority or lawful agent of any state in controversy with another shall 
present a petition to congress, stating the matter in question, and praying 
for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of congress to the 
legislative or executive authority of the other state in controversy, and a 
day assigned for the appearance of the parties, by their lawful agents, 
who shall then be directed to appoint by joint consent commissioners or 
judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in 
question; but if they cannot agree, congress shall name three persons out 
of each of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party 
shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number 
shall be reduced to thirteen; and from that number not less than seven 
nor more than nine names, as congress shall direct, shall, in the presence 
of congress, be drawn out by lot; and the persons whose names shall be 
so drawn, or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear 
and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the 
judges, who shall hear the cause, shall agree in the determination; and 
if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without 
showing reasons which congress shall judge sufficient, or being present 
shall refuse to strike, the congress shall proceed to nominate three persons 
out of each state, and the secretary of congress shall strike in behalf of 
such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the 
court, to be appointed in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and 
conclusive; and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority 
of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court shall 
nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence, or judgment, which shall in 
like manner be final and decisive; the judgment or sentence and other 
proceedings being in either case transmitted to congress, and lodged among 
the acts of congress, for the security of the parties concerned; provided, 
that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, 
to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court 
of the state where the cause shall be tried, "well and truly to hear and 
determine the matter in question, according to the best of his judgment, 
without favour, affection, or hope of reward." Provided, also, that no 
state shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States. 
Sec. 3. All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed 
under different grants of two or more states, whose jurisdiction, as they 
may respect such lands, and the states which passed such grants are 
adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed 
to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on 
the petition of either party to the congress of the United States, be finally 
determined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed 
for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different 
states. 



APPENDIX 575 

Sec. 4. The United States, in congress assembled, shall also have the 
sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of 
coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective states; 
fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States; 
regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not mem- 
bers of any of the states; provided that the legislative right of any state, 
within its own limits, be not infringed or violated; establishing and regu- 
lating postoffices from one state to another, throughout all the United 
States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same, 
as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said oflSce; appointing 
all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting 
regimental officers; appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and 
commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States; 
making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and 
naval forces, and directing their operations. 

Sec. 5. The United States, in congress assembled, shall have authority 
to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated, 
"A Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each 
state; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be 
necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States, under 
their direction; to appoint one of their number to preside, provided that 
no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year 
in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to 
be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and 
apply the same for defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or 
emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year 
to the respective states an account of the sums of money so borrowed or 
emitted; to build and equip a navy; to agree upon the number of land 
forces, and to make requisitions from each state for its quota, in propor- 
tion to the number of white inhabitants in each state; which requisition 
shall be binding, and thereupon the legislature of each state shall appoint 
the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip them in a 
soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers 
and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place 
appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in congress 
assembled; but if the United States in congress assembled shall, on con- 
sideration of circumstances, judge proper that any state should not raise 
men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other 
state should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such 
extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in 
the same manner as the quota of such state, unless the legislature of such 
state shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of 
the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip, as 
many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared, and the 



576 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place 
appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in congress 
assembled. 

Sec. 6. The United States, in congress assembled, shall never engage 
in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor 
enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the 
value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the 
defense and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, 
nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate 
money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or pur- 
chased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a 
commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine states assent to the 
same, nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from 
day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the 
United States in congress assembled. 

Sec. 7. The congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn 
to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, 
so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space 
of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, 
except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military opera- 
tions, as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the 
delegates of each state, on any question, shall be entered on the journal, 
when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a state, or any 
of them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of 
the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before 
the legislatures of the several states. 

Art. X. The committee of the states, or any nine of them shall be 
authorized to execute, in the recess of congress, such of the powers of 
congress as the United States, in congress assembled, by the consent of 
nine states, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with; 
provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise 
of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine states, in the 
congress of the United States assembled, is requisite. 

Art. XL Canada, acceding to this confederation, and joining in the 
measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all 
the advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into 
the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states. 

Art. XII. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts 
contracted, by or under the authority of congress, before the assembling of 
the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be 
deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment 
and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are 
hereby solemnly pledged. 

Art. XIII. Every state shall abide by the determinations of the 



APPENDIX 577 

United States in congress assembled, on all questions which, by this con- 
federation, are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation 
shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual ; 
nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, 
unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the United States, and 
be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every state. 

And Vvhereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the world to incline 
the hearts of the legislatures we respectfully represent in congress to 
approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation 
and perpetual union; Know ye, That we, the undersigned delegates, by 
virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose do, by these 
presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully 
and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of 
confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and 
things therein contained; and we do further solemnly plight and engage the 
faith of our respective constituents that they shall abide by the determina- 
tions of the United States in congress assembled, on all questions which, 
by the said confederation, are submitted to them ; and that the articles 
thereof shall be inviolably observed by the states we respectively represent; 
and that the union shall be perpetual. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands, in congress. 

Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of 
July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy- 
eight, and in the third year of the Independence of America. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Neiv Hampshire 
Josiah Bartlett, John Wentworth, Jr., Aug. 8, 1778. 

On the part and hehalf of the State of Massachusetts Bay 

John Hancock, Francis Dana, 

Samuel Adams, James Lovell, 

Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holten. 

On the part and in behalf of the State of Rhode Island and Providence 

Plantations 

William Ellery, John Collins. 

Henry Marchant, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Connecticut 

Eoger Sherman, Titus Hosmer, 

Samuel Huntingdon, Andrew Adams. 

Oliver Wolcott, 



578 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

On the "part and behalf of the State of New YorTc . 
Jas. Duane, Wm. Duer, 

Francis Lewis, Gouv. Morris. 

On the part and in "behalf of the State of New Jersey 
Jno. Witlierspoon, Nath. Scudder, Nov. 26, 1778. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Pennsylvania 

Eobt. Morris, "William Clingan, 

Daniel Roberdeau, Joseph Eeed, 22d July, 1778. 

Jonathan Bayard Smith, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Delaware 

Thomas McKean, Feb. 13, 1779, Nicholas Van Dyke. 

John Dickinson, May 5, 1779, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Maryland 
John Hanson, March 1, 1781, Daniel Carroll, March 1, 1781. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Virginia 

Eichard Henry Lee, Jno. Harvie, 

John Banister, Francis Lightfoot Lee. 

Thomas Adams, 

On the part and behalf of the State of North Carolina 

John Penn, July 21, 1778, Jno. Williams. 

Constable Harnett, 

On the part and behalf of the State of South Carolina 

Henry Laurens, Eichard Hutson, 

William Henry Drayton, Thos. Heyw^^d, Jr. Cl/U 

Jno. Mathews, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Georgia 

Jno. Walton, 24th July, 1778, Edwd. Langworthy. 

Edwd. Telfair, 



PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 




2. JOHN ADAMS 
5. JAMES MONROE 



1. GEORGE WASHINGTON 

3. THOMAS JEFFERSON 4. JAMES MADISON 

6. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 7. ANDREW JACKSON 



PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 




8. MARTIN VAN BUREN 9. WILLIAM HENRV HARRISON 10. JOHN TYLER 
11. JAMES K. FOLK. 12. ZACHARY TAYLOR 13. MILLARD FILLMORE 

U. FRANKLIN PIERCE 15. JAMES BUCHANAN 17. ANDREW JOHNSON 



PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 




16. ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 




18. ULYSSES S. GRANT 19. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES 20. JAMES A.GARFIELD 

21. CHESTER A.ARTHUR 22-24. GROVER CLEVELAND 23. BENJAMIN HARRISON 
2.5. WILLIAM McKINLEY 2B. THEODORE ROOSEVELT 27. WILLIAM H. TAFT 



APPENDIX 579 

WASHINGTON'S LETTEE TO THE GOVERNORS OF THE THIR- 
TEEN STATES ON RESIGNING AS COMMANDER-IN- 
CHIEF— THE ARGUMENT FOR AND BASIS 
OF THE CONSTITUTION 

"Washington having decided to resign his commission as commander-in- 
chief of the American army, on June 8, 1783, wrote the following letter 
to each of the governors of the states, of which but little has been said, 
yet wherein the future Constitution and inseparable Union under it is 
largely outlined: 

"Sir, The great object for which I had the honor to hold an appoint- 
ment in the service of my country being accomplished, I am now preparing 
to resign it into the hands of congress, and to return to that domestic 
retirement which, it is well known, I left with the greatest reluctance; a 
retirement for which I have never ceased to sigh through a long and painful 
absence, and which (remote from the noise and trouble of the world) I 
meditate to pass the remainder of life in a state of undisturbed repose. 
But before I carry this resolution into effect, I think it is a duty incumbent 
upon me to make this my last official communication; to congratulate you 
on the glorious events which Heaven has been pleased to produce in our 
favor; to offer my sentiments respecting some important subjects which 
appear to me to be intimately connected with the tranquillity of the United 
States; to take my final leave of your excellency as a public character; and 
to give my final blessing to that country in whose service I have spent the 
prime of my life, for whose sake I have consumed so many anxious day« 
and watchful nights, and whose happiness, being extremely dear to me, 
will always constitute no inconsiderable part of my own. 

"Impressed with the liveliest sensibility on this pleasing occasion, I 
will claim the indulgence of dilating the more copiously on the subjects of 
our mutual felicitation. When we consider the magnitude of the prize we 
contended for, the doubtful nature of the contest, and the favorable manner 
in which it has terminated, we shall find the greatest possible reason for 
gratitude and rejoicing. This is a theme that will afford infinite delight 
to every benevolent and liberal mind, whether the event in contemplation 
be considered as the source of present enjoyment, or the parent of future 
happiness; and we shaU have equal occasion to felicitate ourselves on the 
lot which Providence has assigned us, whether we view it in a natural, a 
political, or a moral point of light. 

' ' The citizens of America, placed in the most enviable condition, as the 
sole lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent, comprehending all 
the various soils and climates of the world, and abounding with all the 
necessaries and conveniences of life, are now, by the late satisfactory 
pacification, acknowledged to be possessed of absolute freedom and inde- 
pendency. They are from this period to be considered as the actors on a 



580 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

most conspicuous theater, which seems to be peculiarly designated by Provi- 
dence for the display of human greatness and felicity. Here they are not 
only surrounded with everything which can contribute to the completion 
of private and domestic enjoyment, but Heaven has crowned all its other 
blessings by giving a fairer opportunity for political happiness than any 
other nation has ever been favored with. Nothing can illustrate these 
observations more forcibly than a recollection of the happy conjuncture of 
times and circumstances under which our republic assumed its rank among 
the nations. The foundation of our empire was not laid in the gloomy age 
of ignorance and superstition, but at an epoch when the rights of mankind 
were better understood, and more clearly defined, than at any former period. 
The researches of the human mind after social happiness have been carried 
to a great extent; the treasures of knowledge acquired by the labors of 
philosophers, sages and legislators, through a long succession of years, are 
laid open for our use; and their collected wisdom may be happily employed 
in the establishment of our forms of government. The free cultivation of 
letters; the unbounded extension of commerce; the progressive refinement 
of manners; the growing liberality of sentiment; and above all the pure 
and benign light of revelation, have had a meliorating influence on man- 
kind, and increased the blessings of society. At this auspicious period, the 
United States came into existence as a nation; and if their citizens should 
not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own. 

"Such is our situation, and such are our prospects. But notwithstand- 
ing the cup of blessing is thus reached out to us ; notwithstanding happiness 
is ours, if we have a disposition to seize the occasion, and make it our own; 
yet, it appears to me, there is an option still left to the United States of 
America; that it is in their choice, and depends upon their conduct, whether 
they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable as 
a nation. This is the time of their political probation; this is the moment 
when the eyes of the whole world are turned upon them; this is the moment 
to establish or ruin their national character forever; this is the favorable 
moment to give such a tone to our federal government as will enable it to 
answer the ends of its institution, or this may be the ill-fated moment for 
relaxing the powers of the union, annihilating the cement of the confedera- 
tion, and exposing us to become the sport of European politics, which may 
play one state against another, to prevent their growing importance, and 
to serve their own interested purposes. For according to the system of 
policy the states shall adopt at this moment, they will stand or fall; and 
by their confirmation or lapse, it is yet to be decided whether the revolu- 
tion must ultimately be considered a blessing or a curse; a blessing or a 
curse not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of 
unborn millions be involved. 

"With this conviction of the importance of the present crisis, silence in 
me would be a crime. I wiU therefore speak to your excellency the Ian- 



APPENDIX 581 

guage of freedom and of sincerity, without disguise. I am aware, however, 
that those who differ from me in political sentiment may perhaps remark 
that I am stepping out of the proper line of my duty, and may possibly 
ascribe to arrogance or ostentation what I know is alone the result of the 
purest intentions. But the rectitude of my own heart, which disdains such 
unworthy motives; the part I have hitherto acted in life; the determination 
I have formed of not taking any share in public business hereafter; the 
ardent desire I feel, and shall continue to manifest, of quietly enjoying, in 
private life, after all the toils of war, the benefits of a wise and liberal 
government, will, I flatter myself, sooner or later convince my countrymen 
that I could have no sinister views in delivering with so little reserve the 
opinions contained in this address. 

' ' There are four things which I humbly conceive are essential to the 
well-being, I may even venture to say to the existence, of the United States 
as an independent power. 

"1st. An indissoluble union of the states under one Federal head. 

"2nd. A sacred regard to public justice. 

"3rd. The adoption of a proper peace establishment, and 

"4th. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among 
the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their 
local prejudices and politics, to make those mutual concessions which are 
requisite to the general prosperity, and, in some instances, to sacrific their 
individual advantages to the interest of the community. 

' ' These are the pillars on which the glorious fabric of our independency 
and national character must be supported. Liberty is the basis, and 
whoever would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the structure, under 
whatever specious pretext he may attempt it, will merit the bitterest execra- 
tion, and the severest punishment, which can be inflicted by his injured 
country. 

' ' On the three first articles, I will make a few observations, leaving the 
last to the good sense and serious consideration of those immediately 
concerned. 

"Under the first head, although it may not be necessary or proper for 
me, in this place, to enter into a particular disquisition of the principles of 
the Union, and to take up the great question which has frequently been 
agitated, whether it be expedient and requisite for the states to delegate a 
larger proportion of power to congress or not; yet it will be a part of 
my duty, and that of every true patriot, to assert without reserve, and to 
insist upon the following positions: that unless the states will suffer 
congress to exercise those prerogatives they are undoubtedly invested with 
by the constitution, everything must very rapidly tend to anarchy and 
confusion ; that it is indispensable to the happiness of the individual states, 
that there should be lodged somewhere a supreme power to regulate and 
govern the general concerns of the confederated republic, without which 



582 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

the Union cannot be of long duration; that there must be a faithful and 
pointed compliance, on the part of every state, with the late proposals and 
demands of congress, or the most fatal consequences will ensue ; that what- 
ever measures have a tendency to dissolve the Union or contribute to violate 
or lessen the sovereign authority, ought to be considered as hostile to the 
liberty and independence of America, and the authors of them treated 
accordingly; and lastly, that unless we can be enabled, by the concurrence 
of the states, to participate of the fruits of the Eevolution, and enjoy the 
essential benefits of civil society, under a form of government so free and 
uncorrupted, so happily guarded against the danger of oppression as has 
been devised and adopted by the Articles of Confederation, it will be a 
subject of regret, that so much blood and treasure have been lavished for 
no purpose ; that so many sufferings have been encountered without a com- 
pensation; and that so many sacrifices have been made in vain. Many 
other considerations might here be adduced to prove, that without an entire 
conformity to the spirit of the Union, we cannot exist as an independent 
power. It will be sufficient for my purpose to mention one or two, which 
seem to me of the greatest importance. It is only in our united character 
that we are known as an empire, that our independence is acknowledged, 
that our power can be regarded, or our credit supported among foreign 
nations. The treaties of the European powers with the United States of 
America, will have no validity on a dissolution of the Union. We shall be 
left nearly in a state of nature, or we may find, by our own unhappy 
experience, that there is a natural and necessary progression from the 
extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny; and that arbitrary power 
is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness. 

"As to the second article, which respects the performance of public 
justice, congress have in their late address to the United States, almost 
exhausted the subject. They have explained their ideas so fully, and have 
enforced the obligations the states are under, to render complete justice to 
all the public creditors, with so much dignity and energy, that in my 
opinion, no real friend to the honor and independency of America, can 
hesitate a single moment respecting the propriety of complying with the 
just and honorable measures proposed. If their arguments do not produce 
conviction, I know of nothing that will have greater influence; especially 
when we recollect that the system referred to, being the result of the 
collected wisdom of the continent, must be esteemed, if not perfect, cer- 
tainly the least objectionable of any that could be devised; and that if it 
should not be carried into immediate execution, a national bankruptcy, 
with all its deplorable consequences, will take place before any different 
plan can possibly be proposed and adopted. So pressing are the present 
circumstances, and such is the alternative now offered to the states. 

"The ability of the country to discharge the debts which have been 
incurred in its defence is not to be doubted; an inclination I flatter myself 



APPENDIX 583 

will not be wanting. The path of our duty is plain before us — honesty will 
be found, on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy. Let 
us then, as a nation, be just; let us fulfil the public contracts which 
congress had undoubtedly a right to make, for the purpose of carrying 
on the war, with the same good faith we suppose ourselves bound to perform 
our private engagements. In the meantime, let an attention to the cheerful 
performance of their proper "business as individuals, and as members of 
society, be earnestly inculcated on the citizens of America. Then will they 
strengthen the hands of government, and be happy under its protection. 
Every one will reap the fruit of his labours; every one will enjoy his own 
acquisitions, without molestation, and without danger. 

' ' In this state of absolute freedom and perfect security, who will grudge 
to yield a very little of his property to support the common interest of 
society, and insure the protection of government? Who does not remember 
the frequent declarations, at the commencement of the war, that we should 
be completely satisfied, if at the expense of one half, we could defend the 
remainder of our possessions? Where is the man to be found who wishes 
to remain indebted for the defence of his own person and property, to the 
exertions, the bravery, and the blood of others, without making one generous 
effort to repay the debt of honor and of gratitude? In what part of the 
continent shall we find any man or body of men, who would not blush to 
stand up and propose measures purposely calculated to rob the soldier of 
his stipend and the public creditor of his due? And were it possible that 
such a flagrant instance of injustice could ever happen, would it not excite 
the general indignation, and tend to bring down upon the authors of such 
measures, the aggravated vengeance of heaven? If, after all, a spirit of 
disunion, or a temper of obstinacy and perverseness, should manifest itself 
in any of the states; if such an ungracious disposition should attempt to 
frustrate all the happy effects that might be expected to flow from the 
Union; if there should be a refusal to comply with the requisition for 
funds to discharge the annual interest of the public debts; and if that 
refusal should revive again all those jealousies, and produce all those evils, 
which are now happily removed ; congress, who have in all their transactions, 
shown a great degree of magnanimity and justice, will stand justified in 
the sight of God and man; and the state alone which puts itself in oppo- 
sition to the aggregate wisdom of the continent, and follows such mistaken 
and pernicious counsels, will be responsible for all the consequences. 

"For my own part, conscious of having acted. while a servant of the 
public, in the manner I conceived best suited to promote the real interests 
of my country; having, in consequence of my fixed belief, in some measure 
pledged myself to the army, that their country would finally do them com- 
plete and ample justice; and not wishing to conceal any instance of my 
oflQcial conduct from the eyes of the world; I have thought proper to 
transmit to your excellency the enclosed collection of papers, relative to 



584 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMERS 

the half pay and commutation granted by congress to the officers 
of the army. From these communications, my decided sentiments 
will be clearly comprehended, together with the conclusive reasons which 
induiced me, at an early period, to recommend the adoption of the measure, 
in the most earnest and serious" manner. As the proceedings of congress, 
the army, and myself, are open to all, and contain, in my opinion, sufficient 
information to remove the prejudices, and errors, which may have been 
entertained by any, I think it unnecessary to say anything more than just 
to observe, that the resolutions of congress now alluded to, are undoubtedly 
as absolutely binding upon the United States, as the most solemn acts of 
confederation or legislation. As to the idea which I am informed, has 
in some instances prevailed, that the half pay and commutation are to be 
regarded merely in the odious light of a pension, it ought to be exploded 
forever. That provision should be viewed as it really was, a reasonable 
compensation offered by congress, at a time when they had nothing else 
to give to the officers of the army, for services then to be performed. It 
was the only means to prevent a total dereliction of the service. — It was a 
part of their hire. — I may be allowed to say it was the price of their blood, 
and of your independence. It is therefore more than a common debt; it is 
a debt of honour. It can never be considered as a pension, or gratuity; 
nor be cancelled until it is fairly discharged. 

"With regard to a distinction between officers and soldiers, it is suffi- 
cient that the uniform experience of every nation of the world, combined 
with your own, proves the utility and propriety of the discrimination. 
Eewards in proportion to the aids the public derives from them, are unques- 
tionably due to all its servants. In some lines, the soldiers have perhaps 
generally had as ample compensation for their services, by the large boun- 
ties which have been paid to them, as their officers will receive in the pro- 
posed commutation; in others, if besides the donation of lands, the pay- 
ment of arrearages, of clothing and wages, (in which articles all the com- 
ponent parts of the army must be put upon the same footing,) we take 
into the estimate the bounties many of the soldiers have received, and the 
gratuity of one year's full pay which is promised to all, possibly their 
situation (every circumstance duly considered) will not be deemed less 
eligible than that of the officers. Should a further reward, however, be 
judged equitable, I will venture to assert, no one will enjoy greater satis- 
faction than myself, on seeing an exemption from taxes for a limited 
time, (which has been petitioned for in some instances), or any other 
adequate immunity or compensation, granted to the brave defenders of their 
country's cause. But neither the adoption nor rejection of this proposition 
will in any manner affect, much less militate against, the act of congress, 
by which they have offered five years ' full pay, in lieu of the half pay for 
life, which had been promised to the officers of the army. 

"Before I conclude the subject of public justice, I cannot omit to 



APPENDIX 585 

mention the obligations this country is under to that meritorious class of 
veteran non-commissioned officers and privates who have been discharged 
for inability, in consequence of the resolution of congress of the 23d April, 
1782, on an annual pension for life. Their peculiar sufferings, their singu- 
lar merits, and claims to that provision, need only be known, to interest 
all the feelings of humanity in their behalf. Nothing but a punctual 
payment of their annual allowance can rescue them from the most com- 
plicated misery, and nothing could be a more melancholy and distressing 
sight, than to behold those who have shed their blood or lost their limbs 
in the service of their country, without a shelter, without a friend, and 
without the means of obtaining any of the necessaries or comforts of life; 
compelled to beg their daily bread from door to door. Suffer me to recom- 
mend those of this description, belonging to your state, to the warmest 
patronage of your excellency and your legislature. 

"It is necessary to say but a few words on the third topic which was 
proposed, and which regards particularly the defence of the republic, as 
there can be little doubt but congress will recommend a proper peace estab- 
lishment for the United States, in which a due attention will be paid to 
the importance of placing the militia of the Union upon a regular and 
respectable footing. If this should be the case, I would beg leave to urge 
the great advantage of it in the strongest terras. The militia of this 
country must be considered as the palladium of our security, and the first 
effectual resort in case of hostility. It is essential, therefore, that the 
same system should pervade the whole; that the formation and discipline 
of the militia of the continent should be absolutely uniform, and that the 
same species of arms, accoutrements, and military apparatus should be 
introduced in every part of the United States. No one who has not learned 
it from experience, can conceive the difficulty, expense, and confusion which 
result from a contrary system, or the vague arrangements which have 
hitherto prevailed. 

"If in treating of political points, a greater latitude than usual has 
been taken in the course of this address, the importance of the crisis, and 
magnitude of the objects in discussion must be my apology. It is, however, 
neither my wish or expectation, that the preceding observations should 
claim any regard, except so far as they shall appear to be dictated by a 
good intention, consonant to the immediate rules of justice, calculated to 
produce a liberal system of policy, and founded on whatever experience may 
have been acquired by a long and close attention to public business. Here 
I might speak with the more confidence, from my actual observations; and 
if it would not swell this letter (already too prolix) beyond the bounds I 
had prescribed myself, I could demonstrate to every mind open to con- 
viction, that in less time, and with much less expense than has been incurred, 
the war might have been brought to the same happy conclusion, if the 
resources of the continent could have been properly drawn forth; that the 



586 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

distresses and disappointments which have very often occurred, have, in 
too many instances, resulted more from a want of energy in the continental 
government, than a deficiency of means in the particular states; that the 
inefificacy of measures, arising from the want of an adequate authority in 
the supreme power, from a partial compliance with the requisitions of 
congress in some of the states, and from a failure of punctuality in others, 
while it tended to damp the zeal of those which were more willing to exert 
themselves, served also to accumulate the expenses of the war, and to 
frustrate the best concerted plans; and that the discouragement occasioned 
by the complicated difficulties and embarrassments in which our affairs 
were by this means involved, would have long ago produced the dissolution 
of any army less patient, less virtuous, and less persevering, than that 
which I have had the honour to command. But while I mention these 
things which are notorious facts, as the defects of our Federal constitution, 
particularly in the prosecution of a war, I beg it may be understood, that 
as I have ever taken a pleasure in gratefully acknowledging the assistance 
and support I have derived from every class of citizens, so shall I always 
be happy to do justice to the unparalleled exertions of the individual states, 
on many interesting occasions. 

"I have thus freely disclosed what I wished to make known before I 
surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me. The task 
is now accomplished. I now bid adieu to your excellency as the chief 
magistrate of your state; at the same time I bid a last farewell to the 
cares of office and all the employments of public life. 

"It remains then to be my final and only request, that your excellency 
will communicate these sentiments to your legislature at their next meeting; 
and that they may be considered as the legacy of one who has ardently 
wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his country; and who, even in the 
shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction upon it. 

"I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the 
state over which you preside, in his holy protection, and that He would 
incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and 
obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for 
one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and 
particularly for their brethren who have served in the field, and finally, 
that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, 
to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and 
pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author 
of our blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose example in 
these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. ' ' 

Chief Justice Marshall, of this "paternal and affectionate letter," 
says: "The impression made by this solemn and affecting admonition 
could not be surpassed. The circumstances under which it was given, added 
to the veneration with which it was received; and, like the counsel of a 



APPENDIX 587 

parent on -nhom the grave is about to close forever, it sunk deep into the 
hearts of all. But, like the counsels of a parent withdrawn from view, the 
advice was too soon forgotten, and the impression it had made was too soon 
effaced. ' ' 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Preamble 

We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to 
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution 
for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. — Legislative Department 

Section I. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house 
of representatives. ' 

Sec. II. Clause 1. The house of representatives shall be composed of 
members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and 
the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors 
of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 

Clause 2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have 
attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of 
the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of 
that state in which he shall be chosen. 

Clause 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
the several states which may be included within this Union, according to 
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of 
j^ears, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. 
The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first 
meeting of the congress of the United States, and within every subsequent 
term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number 
of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each 
state shall have at least one representative; and until such enumeration 
shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three ; 
Massachusetts, eight ; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one ; Con- 
necticut, five; New York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; Dela- 
ware, one; Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; North Carolina, five; South 
Carolina, five, and Georgia, three. 

Ky cause 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, 



588 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies. 

Clause 5. The house of representatives shall choose their Speaker and 
other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Sec. III. Clause 1. The senate of the United States shall be composed 
of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six 
years; and each senator shall have one vote. 

Clause 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of 
the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the 
expiration of the second year; of the second class at the expiration of the 
fourth year; and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so 
that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by 
resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state, 
the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next 
meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

Clause 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to 
the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, 
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which 
he shall be chosen. 

Clause 4. The vice-president of the United States shall be president of 
the senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

Clause 5. The senate shall choose their other officers, and also a presi- 
dent pro tempore, in the absence of the vice-president, or when he shall 
exercise the oflfice of president of the United States. 

Clause 6. The senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 
When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When 
the president of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside: 
and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds 
of the members present. 

Clause 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further 
than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States: but the party 
convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, 
judgment, and punishment, according to law. 

Section IV. Clause 1. The times, places and manner of holding 
elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state 
by the legislature thereof; but the congress may at any time by law make 
or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

Clause 2. The congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall 
by law appoint a different day. 

Section V. Clause 1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, 
returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each 



APPENDIX 589 

shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may 
adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance 
of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each 
house may provide. 

Clause B. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, 
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of 
two-thirds, expel a member. 

Clause 3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and 
from time to time publish the same, excepting such pai'ts as may in their 
judgment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays> of the members of either 
house on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, 
be entered on the journal. 

Clause 4. Neither house, during the session of congress, shall, without 
the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

Section VI. Clause 1. The senators and representatives shall receive 
a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out 
of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except 
treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during 
their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to 
and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, 
they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

Clause 2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for 
M'hieh he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority 
of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments 
whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding 
any office under the United States, shall be a member of either house 
during his continuance in office. 

Section VII. Clause 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate 
in the house of representatives; but the senate may propose or concur 
with amendments, as on other bills. 

Clause 2. Every bill which shall have passed the house of represent- 
atives and the senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the 
president of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not 
he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have 
originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and 
proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that 
house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the 
objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, 
and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But 
in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and 
nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall 
be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall 
not be returned by the president within ten days (Sundays excepted) 



590 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like 
manner as if he had signed it, unless the congress by their adjournment 
prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Clause 2, Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence 
of the senate and house of representatives may be necessary (except on a 
question of adjournment) shall be presented to the president of the United 
States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, 
or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the senate 
and house of representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre- 
scribed in the case of a bill. 

Sec. VIII. Clause 1. The congress shall have power, to lay and 
collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for 
the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all 
duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. 

Clause 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

Clause 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
several states, and with the Indian tribes; 

Clause 4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform 
laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

Clause 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 

Clause 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securi- 
ties and current coin of the United States; 

Clause 7. To establish postoffices and post-roads; 

Clause 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by 
securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to 
their respective writings and discoveries; 

Clause 9. To constitute tribimals inferior to the supreme court; 

Clause 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on 
the high seas, and offences against the law of nations; 

Clause 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and 
make rules concerning captures on land and water; 

Clause IS. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money 
to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 

Clause 13. To provide and maintain a navy; 

Clause 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the 
land and naval forces; 

Clause 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; 

Clause 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the 
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the 
service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the 
appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia 
according to the discipline prescribed by congress; 



APPENDIX 591 

Clause 17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all eases whatsoever, 
over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of 
particular states, and the acceptance of congress, become the seat of the 
government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all 
places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which 
the same shall be for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, 
and other needful buildings; — And 

Clause 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested 
by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any 
department or ofScer thereof. 

Sec. IX. Clause 1. The migration or importation of such persons as 
any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be 
prohibited by the congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not 
exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

Clause 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 
suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety 
may require it. 

Clause 3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

Clause 4. No capitation, or other direct tax, shall be laid, unless in 
proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

Clause 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from 
any state. 

Clause 6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce 
or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall 
vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay 
duties in another. 

Clause 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in conse- 
quence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and 
account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be 
published from time to time. 

Clause 8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: 
and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without 
the consent of the congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or 
title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Sec. X. Clause 1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or 
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit 
bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in pay- 
ment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto kiw, or law 
impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

Clause 2. No state shall, without the consent of the congress, lay any 
impost, or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely 
necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all 



592 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for 
the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be 
subject to the revision and control of the congress. 

Clause 3. No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any 
duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace, enter into 
any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, 
or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger 
as will not admit of delay. 

AETICLE II — Executive Department 

Sec. 1. Clause 1. The executive power shall be vested in a president 
of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term 
of four years, and, together with the vice-president, chosen for the same 
term, be elected as follows: 

Clause 2. Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of 
senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the 
congress, but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of 
trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

Clause 3. [This clause has been superseded by the Twelfth Amend- 
ment.] 

Clause 4. The congress may determine the time of choosing the 
electors and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day 
shall be the same throughout the United States. 

Clause 5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the 
United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be 
eligible to the office of president; neither shall any person be eligible to 
that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and 
been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

Clause 6. In case of the removal of the president from office, or of 
his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of 
the said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-president, and the con- 
gress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or 
inability, both of the president and vice-president, declaring what officer 
shall then act as president, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the 
disability be removed, or a president shall be elected.. 

Clause 7. The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services, 
a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during 
the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 

Clause 8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take 
the following oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 
I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and 



APPENDIX 593 

will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the consti- 
tution of the United States. ' ' 

Sec. II. Clause 1. The president shall be commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several 
states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may 
require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the 
executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their 
respective offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons 
for offences against the United States, except in eases of impeachment. 

Clause 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent 
of the senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators 
present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and 
consent of the senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, judges of the supreme court, and all other officers of the 
United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, 
and which shall be established by law: but the congress may by law vest 
the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the 
president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

Clause 3. The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that 
may happen during the recess of the senate, by granting commissions 
which shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Sec. III. He shall from time to time give to the congress informa- 
tion of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraor- 
dinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of 
disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he 
may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive 
ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws 
be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United 
States. 

Sec. IV. The president, vice-president and all civil officers of the 
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and con- 
viction of. treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III — Judicial Department 

Sec. I. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in 
one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may from 
time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and 
inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at 
stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be 
diminished during their continuance in office. 

Sec. II. Clause 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in 
law and equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of the United 
States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; 



594 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

to all eases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to 
all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which 
the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more 
states; between a state and citizens of another state;' — between citizens 
of different states; between citizens of the same state claiming lands 
under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens 
thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 

Clause 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the supreme court 
shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, 
the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and 
fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the congress 
shall make. 

Clause S. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall 
be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes 
shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the 
trial shall be at such place or places as the congress may by law have 
directed. 

Sec. III. Clause 1. Treason against the United States shall consist 
only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving 
them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless 
on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession 
in open court. 

Clause 2. The congress shall have power to declare the punishment 
of treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or 
forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted. 

AETICLE IV — General Provisions 

Sec. I. EuU faith and credit shall be given in each state to the 
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state; and 
the congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, 
records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Sec. II. Clause 1. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all 
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. 

Clause 2. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other 
crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall, 
on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be 
delivered up to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. 

Clause 3. No person held to service or labor in one state, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may 
be due. 

1 Limited by the Eleventh Amendment. See page 531. 



APPENDIX 595 

Sec. III. Clause 1. New states may be admitted by the congress 
into this Union ; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the 
jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction 
of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legis- 
latures of the states concerned as well as of the congress. 

Clause 2. The congress shall have power to dispose of and make all 
needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property 
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall be 
bO construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any 
particular state. 

Sec. IV. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this 
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them 
against invasion, and on application of the legislature, or of the executive 
(when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V — Power of Amendment 

The congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it neces- 
sary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the applica- 
tion of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a 
convention for proposing amendments, wliich, in either case, shall be valid 
to all intents and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by 
the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in 
three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be 
proposed by the congress; provided that no amendment which may be 
made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any 
manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first 
article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its 
equal suffrage in the senate. 

ARTICLE VI — Miscellaneous Provisions 

Clause 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before 
the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United 
States under this constitution, as under the confederation. 

Clause 2. This constitution, and the laws of the United States which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall 
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, 
anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

Clause 3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the 
members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial 
oiBeers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be 
bound by oath or aflSrmation, to support this constitution; but no religious 



596 



THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 



test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust 
under the United States. 

AETICLE VII — Eatification of the Constitution 

The ratification of the convention of nine states shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying 
the same. 

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states 
present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and 
of the independence of the United States of America the 
twelfth. 
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names. 

GEOEGE WASHINGTON, 
President, and Deputy from Virginia. 
Attest: WILLIAM JACKSON, 

Secretary. 



John Langdon, 



New Hampshire 

Nicholas Oilman. 



Nathaniel Gorman, 



William Samuel Johnson, 



Alexander Hamilton. 



Massachusetts 

Eufus King. 

Cotmecticut 

Eoger Sherman. 

New Yorh 
New Jersey 



William Livingston, 
David Brearley, 



William Paterson, 
Jonathan Dayton, 



Benjamin Franklin, 
Thomas Mifflin, 
Eobert Morris, 
George Clymer, 



Pennsylvania 



Thomas FitzsimHions, 
Jared Ingersoll, 
James Wilson, 
Gouverneur Morris. 



APPENDIX 59? 

Delaware 



George Eead, Eiehard Bassett, 

Gunning Bedford, Jr., Jacob Broom. 

John Dickinson, 

Maryland 

James McHenry, Daniel Carroll. 

Daniel of St. Tho. Jenifer, 



John Blair, James Madison, Jr. 

North Carolina 

William Blount, Hugh Williamson. 

Eiehard Dobbs Spaight, 

South Carolina 

John Eutledge, Charles Pinckney, 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Pierce Butler. 

Georgia 
William Few, Abraham Baldwin. 

Having concluded its work, and thirty-nine of the delegates, as seen, 
signed the constitution, the convention addressed the following resolution 
and letter to the Continental Congress: 

In Convention, Monday, September 17, 1787. 



The states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut; Mr. Hamil- 
ton, from New York; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 

Resolved, That the preceding constitution be laid before the United 
States in congress assembled; and that it is the opinion of this convention, 
that it should afterwards be submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen 
in each state by the people thereof, under the recommendation of its legis- 
lature, for their assent and ratification; and that each convention assenting 
to, and ratifying the same, should give notice thereof to the United States 
in congress assembled. 

Eesolved, That it is the opinion of this convention, that as soon as the 



598 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

conventions of nine states shall have ratified this constitution, the United 
States in congress assembled should fix a day on which electors should be 
appointed by the states which shall have ratified the same, and a day on 
which the electors should assemble to vote for the president, and the time 
and place for commencing proceedings under this constitution; that after 
such publication, the electors should be appointed, and the senators and 
representatives elected; that the electors should meet on the day fixed for 
the election of the president, and should transmit their votes, certified, 
signed, sealed, and directed, as the constitution requires, to the secretary 
of the United States in congress assembled; that the senators and repre- 
sentatives should convene at the time and place assigned; that the senators 
should appoint a president of the senate, for the sole purpose of receiving, 
opening, and counting the votes for president: and that after he shall be 
chosen, the congress, together with the president, should, without delay, 
proceed to execute this constitution. 

By the unanimous order of the Convention. 

Gkorge Washington, President. 

William Jackson, Secrciary. 



Letter of the Convention to the President oe Congress. 
In Convention, Se'ptemher 17, 1787. 

Sir, — We have now the honor to submit to the consideration of the 
United States in congress assembled that constitution which has appeared 
to us the most advisable. 

The friends of our country have long seen and desired, that the power 
of making war, peace and treaties; that of levying money and regulating 
com_merce, and the correspondent executive and judicial authorities, should 
be fully and effectually vested in the general government of the Union: 
but the impropriety of delegating such extensive trusts to one body of men 
is evident. Hence results the necessity of a different organization. 

It is obviously impracticable in the Federal government of these states, 
to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide 
for the interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must 
give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the 
sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as on the 
object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision 
the line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those which 
may be reserved; and on the present occasion this difficulty was increased 
by a difference among the several states as to their situation, extent, 
habits, and particular interests. 

In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view 
that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the 



APPENDIX 599 

consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, 
safety, perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, 
seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each state in the conven- 
tion to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude than might have been 
otherwise expected; and thus the constitution, which now we present, is 
the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and con- 
cession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indis- 
pensable. 

That it will meet the full -and entire approbation of every state, is not 
perhaps to be expected; but each will doubtless consider, that had her 
interests been alone consulted, the consequences might have been particu- 
larly disagreeable or injurious to others: that it is liable to as few excep- 
tions as could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe: that it 
may promote the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all and 
secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish. 

With great respect, we have the honor to be, sir, your excellency's 
most obedient and humble servants. 

George Washington, President. 
By unanimous order of the convention. 

His Excellency, the President of Congress. 

Upon the receipt of the constitution, resolution, and letter, the congress, 
on September 28, 1787, unanimously resolved: — 

' ' That the said report, with the resolutions and letter accompanying the 
same, be transmitted to the several legislatures, in order to be submitted 
to a convention of delegates chosen in each state by the people thereof in 
conformity to the resolves of the convention, made and provided in 
that case." 

AMENDMENTS 

TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, RATIFIED ACCORDING TO THE 
PROVISIONS OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE FOREGOING CONSTITUTION. 

AETICLE I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the 
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably 
to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

ARTICLE II. A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security 
of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not 
be infringed. 

AETICLE III. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in 
any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in 
a manner to be prescribed by law. 

AETICLE IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 



600 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, 
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly; describing the place to 
be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

AETICLE V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or 
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand 
jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, 
when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any 
person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of 
life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness 
against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due 
process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without 
just compensation. 

AETICLE VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy 
the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state 
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district 
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the 
nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses 
against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his 
favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. 

AETlCLE VII. In suits at common law, where the value in contro- 
versy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be pre- 
served, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any 
court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. 

AETICLE VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive 
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

AETICLE IX. The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights, 
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

AETICLE X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states 
respectively, or to the people. 

AETICLE XL The judicial power of the United States shall not be 
construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted 
against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens 
or subjects of any foreign state. 

AETICLE XII. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and 
vote by ballot for president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, shall 
not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name 
in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots 
the person voted for as vice-president; and they shall make distinct lists 
of all persons voted for as president, and of all persons voted for as vice- 
president, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign 
and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the 
United States, directed to the president of the senate; the president of 



APPENDIX 601 

the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representatives, 
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; — the person 
having the greatest number of votes for president, shall be the president, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the 
highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as 
president, the house of representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, 
the president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken 
by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum 
for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds 
of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a 
choice. And if the house of representatives shall not choose a president 
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth 
day of March next following, then the vice-president shall act as president, 
as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the presi- 
dent. The person having the greatest number of votes as vice-president, 
shall be the vice-president, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then 
from the two highest numbers on the list, the senate shall choose the vice- 
president,* a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the 
whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be 
necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the 
oifiee of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United 
States. 

AETICLE XIII. Sec. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to 
their jurisdiction. 

Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by aopro- 
priate legislation. 

AKTICLE XIV. Sec. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United 
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or 
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of 
citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person 
of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any 
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Sec. 2. Eepresentatives shall be apportioned among the several 
states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number 
of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the 
right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and 
vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the execu- 
tive or judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature 
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being 



602 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis 
of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the 
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male 
citizens twenty-one years of age in such state. 

Sec. 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in congress, 
or elector of president or vice-president, or hold any ofSce, civil or military, 
under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken 
an oath, as a member of congress, or as an officer of the United States, 
or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial 
officer of any state, to support the constitution of the United States, shall 
have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid 
or comfort to the enemies thereof. But congress may by a vote of two- 
thirds of each house, remove such disability. 

Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized 
by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 
But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt 
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but 
all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Sec. 5. The congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate 
legislation, the provisions of this article. 

AETICLE XV. Sec. 1. The right of citizens of the United States 
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any 
state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Sec, 2. The congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDEESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 

(September 17, 1796.) 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — The period for a new election of a 
citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being 
not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be 
employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that impor- 
tant trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a 
more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise 
you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among the 
number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that 
this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the con- 



APPENDIX 603 

siderations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to 
his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender of service, Avhich silence, 
in my situation, might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal 
for your future interest; no deficiency of grateful respect for your past 
kindness; but am supported by a full conviction that the step is com- 
patible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the oflSce to which your 
suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination 
to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your 
desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my 
power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, 
to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. 
The strength of my inclination to (io this, previous to the last election, 
had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you ; but 
mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs 
with foreign nations and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my 
confidence impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, 
no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the senti- 
ment of duty or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may 
be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our 
country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were 
explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will 
only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward the organi- 
zation and administration of the government the best exertions of which a 
very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of 
the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps 
still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence 
of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me, 
more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it 
will be welcome. Satisfied that, if any circumstances have given peculiar 
value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to 
believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political 
scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the 
career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the 
deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to ray 
beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more 
for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the 
opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attach- 
ment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal 
to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, 
let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example 



604 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 

in our annals that, under circumstances in which the passions, agitated 
in every direction, were liable to mislead, amid appearances sometimes 
dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which, 
not unfrequently, want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, 
the constancy of your support was. the essential prop of the efforts, and a 
guarantee of the plans, by which they were effected. Profoundly pene- 
trated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong 
incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest 
tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be 
perpetual; that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands, 
may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department 
may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of 
the people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may be made com- 
plete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as 
will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the 
affection and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop; but a solicitude for your welfare, which 
cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to 
that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your 
solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some 
sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable 
observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of 
your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more free- 
dom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting 
friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel; nor 
can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my 
sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, 
no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attach- 
ment. 

The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now 
dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your 
real independence; the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace 
abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you 
so highly prize. But, as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes, 
and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices 
employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is 
the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal 
and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often 
covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should 
properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your col- 
lective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual 
and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak 
of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching 



APPENDIX 605 

for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may 
suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned; and 
indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate 
any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties 
which now link together the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, 
by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to con- 
centrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in 
your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more 
than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight 
shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits and 
political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed 
together: the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint 
councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to 
your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more imme- 
diately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the 
most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union 
of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by 
the equal laws of a common government finds, in the productions of the 
latter, great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise 
and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same 
intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow 
and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen 
of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it 
contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of 
the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime 
strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in like intercourse 
with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior 
communications by land and water will more and more find, a valuable 
vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at 
home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and 
comfort; and, what is, perhaps, of still greater consequence, it must, of 
necessity, owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own 
productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the 
Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of inter- 
est as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this 
essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from 
an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be 
intrinsically precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and 
particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find, in 
the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resources, 



606 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

proportionally greater security from external danger, a less frequent inter- 
ruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable 
value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and 
wars between themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries 
not tied together by the same government; which their own rivalships alone 
would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attach- 
ments and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they 
will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, 
under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are 
to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty; in this sense it 
is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, 
and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the 
other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and 
virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary 
object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government 
can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to 
mere speculation, in such a case, were criminal. We are authorized to ho|)o 
that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of 
governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to 
the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such 
powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, 
while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will 
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, 
may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as 
a matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished 
for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations— Northern and 
Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to 
excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. 
One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular dis- 
tricts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You 
cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings 
which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to 
each other those who ought, to be bound together by fraternal affection. 
The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful lesson on 
this head: they have seen, in the negotiation by the executive, and in the 
unanimous ratification by the senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the 
universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States, a decisive 
proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a 
policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to 
their interests in regard to the Mississippi ; they have been witnesses to the 
formation of two treaties, that with Great Britian and that with Spain, which 
secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign rela- 



APPENDIX 607 

tions, toward confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to 
rely, for the preservation of these advantages, on the Union by which they 
were procured? "Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if 
such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them 
with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the 
whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts, can 
be an adequate substitute ; they must inevitably experience the infractions 
and interruptions which all alliances, in all times, have experienced. Sen- 
sible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by 
the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your 
former for an intimate Union, and for the efficacious management of your 
common concerns. This government, the offspring of your own choice, 
unintiuenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature 
deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its 
powers uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a pro- 
vision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your 
support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence 
in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true 
liberty. The basis of our political system is the right of the people to 
make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution 
which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of 
the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the 
power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the 
duty of every individual to obey the established government. 

All obstruction to the execution of the laws, all combinations and asso- 
ciations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, 
control, counteract or awe the regular deliberation and action of the con- 
stituted authorities are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of 
fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and 
extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the 
nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising 
minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of 
different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill- 
concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of 
consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common councils and modified 
by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above description may now 
and then answer popular ends, they are likely, iu the course of time and 
things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious and unprin- 
cipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and usurp 
for themselves the reins of government; destroying, afterward, the very 
engines which had lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your government, and the permanency of 



608 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

your present hapijy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily dis- 
countenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority but also 
that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, how- 
ever specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in 
the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of 
the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In 
all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit 
are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of 
other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which 
to test the real tendency of the existing Constitution of a country; that 
facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes 
to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; 
and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your com- 
mon interests in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much 
vigor as is consistent with the security of perfect liberty is indispensable. 
Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly dis- 
tributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a 
name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of 
faction, to confine each m.ember of the society within the limits prescribed 
by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of 
the rights of person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with 
particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discrimina- 
tions. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the 
most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party 
generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its 
root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists, under different 
shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; 
but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is 
truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the 
spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and 
countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful 
despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent 
despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the 
minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an 
individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more 
able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the 
purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which, never- 
theless, ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual 
mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and 
duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 



APPENDIX 609 

It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public 
Administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and 
false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments, 
occasionally, riot and insurrection. It opens the door of foreign influence 
and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself 
through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of 
one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon 
the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of 
Liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true; and in governments 
of a monarchical east, Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with 
favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in 
governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their 
natural tendency it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for 
every salutary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the 
effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. 
A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its 
bursting into a fl^ame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country 
should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its administration, to con- 
fine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in 
the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. 
The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the depart- 
ments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real 
despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse 
it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the 
truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of 
political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, 
and constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions by 
the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of 
them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as 
necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the dis- 
tribution or modification of the constitutional powers be, in any particular, 
wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the constitu- 
tion designates. But let there be no change by usurpation ; for, though this 
in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon 
by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always 
greatly overbalance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient benefit which 
the use can at any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity. 
Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man 
claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pil- 
lars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and 
Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect 



610 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with 
private and public felicity. Let is simply be asked, Where is the security 
for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation 
deserts the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of 
Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can 
be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence 
of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience 
both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of 
religioys principle. 

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of 
popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to 
every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can 
look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the 
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a gov- 
ernment gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion 
should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public 
credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible; 
avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also 
that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much 
greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding, likewise, the accumulation of 
debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions 
in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have 
occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we 
ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your 
Eepresentatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. 
To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you 
should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there 
must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes 
can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that 
the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper 
objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive 
motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the Government in mak- 
ing it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining reve- 
nue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations ; cultivate peace and 
harmony with all. Eeligion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it 
be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, 
enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind 
the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an 
exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time 
and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary 
advantages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be 



APPENDIX 611 

that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with 
its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment 
which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that 
permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate 
attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place jf them, just 
and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. The nation which 
indulges toward another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in 
some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either 
of which is suflScient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer 
insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be 
haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute 
occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed and bloody contests. 
The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war 
the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Govern- 
ment sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through 
passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of 
the nation subservient to project of hostility instigated by pride, ambition 
and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes 
perhaps the liberty of nations has been the victim.' 

So, likewise, the passionate attachment of one nation for another pro- 
duces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the 
illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common 
interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the 
former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without 
adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the 
favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure 
the nation niaking the concessions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought 
to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will and a disposition to 
retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld ; and it 
gives to ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to 
the favorite nation)' facility to betray or sacrifice the interest of their own 
countrj', without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with the 
appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation a commendable deference for 
public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish 
compliances of ambition, corruption or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence, in innumerable ways, such attachments 
are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. 
How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, 
to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or 
awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak toward a 
great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the 
latter. 



612 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe 
me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly 
awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of 
the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be 
useful, must be impartial; else -it becomes the instrument of the very 
influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality 
for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom 
they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even 
second the arts of influence on the other. Eeal patriots, who may resist 
the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; 
while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people 
to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in 
extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political 
connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let 
them be -fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests .which to us have none, or a very 
remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the 
causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, 
it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordi- 
nary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions 
of her friendships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a 
different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, 
the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external 
annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality 
we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when 
belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon lis, 
will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose 
peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our 
own, to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny 
with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the 
toils of European ambition, interest, humor or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any por- 
tion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; 
for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing 
engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to pri- 
vate affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, 
let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my 
opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a 
respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances 
for extraordinary emergencies. 



APPENDIX 613 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended 
by policy, humanity and interest. But even our commercial policy should 
hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive 
favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing 
and diversifying, by gentle means, the streams of commerce, but forcing 
nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a 
stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the Gov- 
ernment to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that 
present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and 
liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and cir- 
cumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one 
nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with 
a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that char- 
acter; that, by su'ih acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of hav- 
ing given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with 
ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to 
expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, 
which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affec- 
tionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting 
impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the 
passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto 
marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they 
may be productive of some partial benefit or some occasional good — that 
they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn 
against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures 
of pretended patriotism — this hop^ will be a full recompense for the solici- 
tude for your welfare by which they have been dictated. 

How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by 
the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evi- 
dences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, 
the assurance of my own conscience is that I have at least believed myself 
to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation of 
the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your 
approving voice, and by that of your Eepresentatives in both Houses of 
Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, unin- 
fluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could 
obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances 
of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to 
take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should 
depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct it is 



614 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMERS 

not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, accord- 
ing to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied 
by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without any- 
thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on 
every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the 
relations of peace and amity toward other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be 
referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant 
motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and 
mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interrupion to 
that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, 
humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am uncon- 
scious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my 
defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. 
"Whatever there may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or 
mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the 
hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and 
that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an 
upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to 
oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that 
fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views in it the 
native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I antici- 
pate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to 
realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my 
fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, 
the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of 
our mutual cares, labors and dangers. George Washington. 

United States, September nth, 1796. 



APPENDIX 



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ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES; 

CAPITALS; MOTTOS; NICKNAMES; FLOWERS; 

AREA; POPULATION IN 1900; SETTLED, 

WHEN AND BY WHOM. 

Alabama. Named in 1817 from its principal river; that from the Ali- 
bamus, or Alibamos Indians. One authority claims its name from 
the last battle of De Soto, in 1541, at Alibamo, on the Yazoo river. 
Capital, Montgomery. Motto, Here we rest. Nickname, the Cotton 
state. Flower, Golden Eod. Area, 52,250 square miles. Population, 
1900, 1,828,697. Settled at Mobile, 1702, by the Trench. 

Alaska. Named by Captain Cook in 1778 from an Indian word, "Alak- 
shak, ^' meaning large country; it is larger than twice the state of 
Texas and all Pennsylvania combined. Capital, Juneau. Area, 590,- 
884 square miles. Population, 1900, 63,592. Settled at Sitka, 1801, 
by the Eussians. 

Arizona. Named from the Indian word, "Arizuma, " meaning rocky 
country. Capital, Phoenix. Motto, Ditat Deus, meaning God en- 
riches. Flower, Sequoia Cactus. Area, 113,020 square miles. Popu- 
lation, 1900, 122,931. Settled at Tucson, 1680, by the Spaniards. 

Arkansas. Named from its principal river; that from the Indians living 
along it, who from the excellence of their bows were known as the 
Arc or Bow Indians. Capital, Little Kock. Motto, Eegnant populi, 
meaning the people rule. Nickname, Bear state. Flower, Apple 
blossom. Area, 53,850 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,311,564. 
Settled at Arkansas Post, 1685, by the French. 

California. Named by the officers of Cortez in 1635 from a Spanish 
romance describing it as the great Island of California, abounding 
in gold and precious stones. Capital, Sacramento. Motto, Eureka; 
meaning, I have found it. Nickname, the Golden state. Flower, 
California Poppy. Area, 158,360 square miles. Population, 1900, 
1,485,053. Settled at San Diego, 1769, by the Spaniards. 

Colorado. Named from its principal river; the word, Colorado, is Span- 
ish, meaning red. Capital, Denver. Motto, Nil sine numine; mean- 
ing, Nothing without God. Nickname, the Centennial state, from its 
admission into the Union in 1876. Flower, Purple Columbine. Area, 
103,925 square miles. Population, 1900, 539,700. Settled near Den- 
ver, 1858, by Americans. 

Connecticut. Named from its principal river; its Indian name, "Quin- 
neh-tukyut, " meaning land on a long tidal river. Capital, Hartford. 
Motto, Sustinet qui transtulit; meaning, He who transplanted still 
sustains. Flower, Mountain Laurel. Nicknames, the Land of Steady 
Habits, the Nutmeg state. Area, 4,990 square miles. Population, 
1900, 908,420. Settled at Windsor, 1635, by the Puritans. 

618 



APPENDIX 619 

Delaware. Named from Lord Delaware, or de la Warr. Capital, Dover. 
Motto, Liberty and Independence. Nicknames, the Diamond state, 
the Blue Hen state. Flower, Peach blossom. Area, 2,050 square 
miles. Population, 1900, 184,735. Settled at Cape Henlopen, 1638, 
by the Swedes. 

District of Columbia. Named in honor of Christopher Columbus, the 
Great Discoverer. Capital, Washington. Motto, Justitia; meaning. 
Justice (or justice for all). Area, 70 square miles. Population, 1900, 
278,718. 

Florida. Named by Ponce de Leon in 1512, his landing there being on 
Easter Sunday; in Spanish, Paseua Florida. Capital, Tallahassee. 
Motto, In God we trust. Nickname, the Peninsula state. Flower, 
Japouica. Area, 58,680 square miles. Population, 1900, 528,542. 

Georgia. Named in honor of Kinge George II of England. Capital, At- 
lanta. Motto, Wisdom, Justice, Moderation. Nicknames, the Empire 
State of the South, Cracker State. Flower, Cherokee Rose. Area, 
59,475 square miles. Population, 1900, 2,216,331. Settled at Savan- 
nah, 1733, by the English. 

Idaho. Named from the Indian word meaning gem of the mountain. 
Capital, Boise City. Motto, Salve; meaning, welcome, or hail. 
Flower, Syringa. Settled at Coeur d'Alene, 1842, by Americans. 
Area, 84,800 square miles. Population, 1900, 161,722. 

Illinois. Named in 1809 from its principal river, that from the Indians, 
the "Illini, " meaning superior men. Capital, Springfield. Motto, 
State Sovereignty — National Union. Nickname, the Sucker state. 
Flower, Violet. Area, 56,650 square miles. Population, 1900, 4,821,- 
550. Settled at Kaskaskia, 1720, by the French. 

Indiana. Named after the American Indian. Capital, Indianapolis. 
Nickname, the Hoosier state. Flower, Indian Corn. Area, 36,350 
square miles. Population, 1900, 2,516,462. Settled at Vincennes, 
1730, by the French. 

Iowa. Named from the Indian word, "Ajawa;" meaning across or 
beyond; applied by the Illinois tribes of Indians to the Indians liv- 
ing beyond the Mississippi; also said to be a contraction of the In- 
dian word, " Ah-hee-oo-ba," meaning sleepers. Capital, Des Moines. 
Motto, Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. 
Nickname, the Hawkeye state. Flower, Wild Eose. Area, 56,025 
square miles. Population, 1900, 2,231,853. Settled at Burlington, 
1788, by the French. 

Kansas. Named from its principal river, that from the Indians who 
lived along it; also said to come from the name "Cayas, " given 
the region by De Soto. The Indian name means smoky or cloudy 
water. Capital, Topeka. Motto, Ad astra per aspera; meaning, to 
the stars through ditiiculties. Nickname, the Sunflower state. Flower, 
Sunflower. Area, 82,080 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,470,495. 
Settled, 1831, by Americans. 

Kentucky. Named from its principal river, meaning at the head of the 
river; also claimed to be named from the Indian word "Kento-ke," 
meaning hunting laud. Capital, Frankfort. Motto, United we stand, 
divided we fall. Nicknames, the Bluegrass state, the Dark and 



620 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

Bloody Ground, the Corneracker state. Area, 40,400 square miles. 
Population, 1900, 2,147,174. Settled at Lexington, 1765, by Vir- 
ginians. 

Louisiana. Named by La Salle in 1682 in honor of Louis XIV of France. 
Capital, Baton Eouge. Motto, Union, Justice and Confidence. Nick- 
name, the Creole state. Flower, Magnolia. Area, 48,720 square 
miles. Population, 1900, 1,381,625. Settled at Iberville, 1699, by the 
French. 

Maine. Named in 1622 from its charter calling it the "Mayne land;" 
that is, the main or chief part of the territory. Capital, Augusta. 
Motto, Dirigo; meaning, I direct. Nicknames, the Lumber state, the 
Pine Tree state. Flower, Pine Cone and Tassel, Area, 33,040 square 
miles. Population, 1900, 694,466. Settled at Bristol, 1624, by the 
English. 

Maryland. Named by King Charles I of England in honor of his queen, 
Henrietta Maria, in his patent to Lord Baltimore, June 30, 1632. 
Capital, Annapolis. Mottoes, Fatti maschi parole femine; meaning, 
manly deeds and womanly words; scuto bonae voluntas tuas coronasti 
nos; meaning, with the shield of Thy good will thou hast covered, or 
crowned, us. Flower, Golden Eod. Nickname, the Old Line state. 
Area, 12,210 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,188,044. Settled at 
St. Mary's, 1634, by the English. 

Massachusetts. Named from the Indian tribe living near Boston. Two 
compound Indian words are given for the name of the tribe, "Mas- 
sa, ' ' meaning Great, and ' ' Wadchuash, ' ' meaning Mountains or 
Hills; and "Massa" and "Waehuset, " meaning at the Great Hill. 
Capital, Boston. Motto, Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem; 
meaning. With the sword she seeks quiet peace under liberty. Nick- 
names, the Bay state, Old Colony. Area, 8,315 square miles. Popu- 
lation, 1900, 2,805,346. Settled at Plymouth, 1620, by the Puritans. 

Michigan. Named from the lake it borders, derived from the Indian 
words "Mitcha" and "Gan, " meaning Great Lake. Capital, Lansing. 
Motto, Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice; meaning, If 
thou seekest a beautiful peninsula behold it here, or look around thee. 
Nicknames, the Lake state, Wolverine state. Flower, Apple blos- 
som. Area, 58,915 square miles. Population, 1900, 2,420,982. 
Settled near Detroit, 1620, by the French. 

Minnesota. Named from its chief river; the Indian words "Mini," 
meaning Water, and "Sotah," meaning Sky-colored. Capital, St. 
Paul. Motto, Etoile du nord; meaning, The Star of the North. 
Nicknames, the North Star state. Gopher state. Flower, Moccasin. 
Area, 83,365 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,751,394. Settled 
at St. Peter, 1805, by Americans. 

Mississippi. Named in 1790 from the great river, that from the In- 
dian Words ' ' Missi-sepe, ' ' meaning Great Eiver or Father of Waters. 
Capital, Jackson. Nickname, the Bayou state. Flovv^er, Magnolia. 
Area, 46,810 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,551,270. Settled at 
Natchez, 1716, from South Carolina. 

Missouri. Named from its great river, that from the Indian words 
"Missi-souri," meaning Muddy river. Capital, Jefferson City. 
Motto, Salus populi suprema lex esto; meaning, The welfare of the 



APPENDIX 631 

people is the supreme law. Flower, Golden Kod. Area, 69,415 
square miles. Population, 1900, 3,106,665. Settled at St. Louis, 
1764, by the French. 

Montana. Named from the Eocky mountains; the word is Spanish, mean- 
ing Mountains. Capital, Helena. Motto, Oro y Plata; Spanish, 
meaning Gold and Silver. Nickname, Stubtoe state. Flower, Bitter- 
root. Area, 146,080 square miles. Settled, 1809, by Americans. 
Population, 1900, 243,329. 

Nebraska. Named from its principal river, that from the Indian words 
"Nee" and "Braska," meaning Shallow water or Water valley. 
Capital, Lincoln. Motto, Equality before the law. Flower, Golden 
Eod. Area, 77,510 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,066,300, Set- 
tled at Bellevue, 1847, by Americans. 

Nevada. Named from the Sierra Nevada mountains; in Spanish, Snowy 
mountains. Capital, Carson City. Motto, All for our country. 
Nickname, the Silver state. Area, 110,700 square miles. Popula- 
tion, 1900, 42,335. Settled at Genoa, 1850, by Americans. 

New Hampshire. Named in honor of Hampshire, England, of which its 
patentee was governor. Capital, Concord. Nickname, the Granite 
state. Area, 9,305 square miles. Population, 1900, 411,588. Settled 
at Dover and Portsmouth, 1623, by Puritans. 

New Jersey. At first called New Sweden, was named by Sir George 
Carteret, cue of its original proprietors, after the Island of Jersey, 
England, of which he was governor. Capital, Trenton. Motto, 
Liberty and Prosperity. Nickname, Jersey Blue state. Flower, 
Sugar Maple. Area, 7,815 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,883,669. 
Settled at Bergen, 1620, by the Swedes. Also claimed to be first 
settled by Dutch emigrants from New York. 

New Mexico. Named after the Aztec God of War, Mexitli, or Mexildi. 
Capital, Santa Fe. Motto, Crescit eundo; meaning. In going it in- 
creases, or increases with progress. Flower, Crimson Eambler Eose. 
Area, 122,580 square miles. Population, 1900, 195,310. Settled at 
Santa Fe, 1537, by the Spaniards. 

New York. At first called New Netherlands, was named after the Duke 
of York, to whom it was granted in 1664. Capital, Albany. Motto, 
Excelsior; meaning higher. Nickname, the Empire state. Flower, 
Eose. Area, 49,170 square miles. Population, 1900, 7,268,894. Set- 
tled at Manhattan island, 1614, by Dutch. 

North Carolina. Claimed to be named both after King Charles I of 
England and Charles IX of Fi'ance. Capital, Ealeigh. Motto, Esse 
quam videri; meaning. To be rather than to seem. Nicknames, the 
Turpentine state, Tarheels, the Old North state. Flower, Chrysanthe- 
mum. Area, 52,250 square miles. Population, 1900, 1,893,810. Set- 
tled at Albemarle, 1650, by the English. 

North Dakota. Both Dakotas, formerly one territory, were named after 
the Indians who inhabited that region and were known as the 
"Dakotahs," meaning the allies, as they were called by the Indians 
east of them. Capital, Bismarck. Motto, Liberty and Union, one 
and inseparable, now and forever, from Daniel Webster's most fa- 
mous speech in the United States Senate. Nickname, the Flickertail 
state. Flowers, Golden Eod and Wild Eose. Area, 70,795 square 



622 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FRAMEES 

miles. Population, 1900, 319,146. Settled at Pembina, 1780, by the 
French. 

Ohio. Named from the great river, its southern boundary; that from 
the Indian word "0-hee-yo, " meaning Beautiful river. Capital, 
Columbus. Motto, Imperium in imperio; meaning, A government 
within a government, or an empire within an empire, symbolical of 
the sovereign states within a sovereign union. Flower, Carnation. 
Nickname, the Buckeye state. Area, 41,060 square miles. Popula- 
tion, 1900, 4,157,545. Settled at Marietta, 1788, by Americans. 

Oklahoma. Named from an Indian work meaning a beautiful land. 
Capital, Guthrie. Flowers, Mistletoe, Crimson Eambler. Area, 70,- 
430 square miles. Population, 1900, Oklahoma, proper, or territory, 
392,060; Indian territory, now part of that state, 398,331; both, 
790,391. Settled, 1889, by Americans. 

Oregon, Named from the Sioux Indian word "Wauregan, " meaning 
beautiful water or great flowing river. Capital, Salem. Motto, 
The Union. Nickname, the Beaver state. Flowers, Marjoram, Ore- 
gon grape. Area, 96,030 square miles. Population, 1900, 413,536. 
Settled at Astoria, 1810, by Americans. 

Pennsylvania. Named in honor of William Penn, Penn Sylva, meaning 
Penn 's Woods, or Penu 's sylvan province. Capital, Harrisburg. 
Motto, Virtue, Liberty and Independence. Nickname, the Keystone 
state, from its being the central state at the time of the formation 
of the Union. Area, 45,215 square miles. Population, 1900, 6,302,- 
115. Settled on the Delaware river, 1682, by the English. 

Bhode Island. Named in honor of the Isle of Ehodes; also claimed to 
be named from the Dutch, "Eoode Eylandt, " meaning red island. 
Capital, Providence. Motto, Hope. Nickname, Little Ehody, it 
being the smallest state in area in the Union. Flower, Violet. Area, 
1,250 square miles. Population, 1900, 428,556. Settled at Provi- 
dence, 1636, by the English. 

South Carolina. Named in honor of King Charles II of England. Capi- 
tal, Columbia. Motto, Dum spiro spero; meaning. While I breathe 
let me hope. Nickname, the Palmetto state. Area, 30,570 square 
miles. Population, 1900, 1,340,316. Settled at Port Eoyal, 1670, by 
Huguenots, and, as North Carolina, at near as early date by the Eng- 
lish and Scotch-Irish. 

South Dakota. Same derivation of name as North Dakota. Capital, 
Pierre. Motto, Under God the people rule. Nickname, Swinge Cat 
state. Flower, Anemone. Area, 77,650 square miles. Population, 
1900, 401,570. Settled at Sioux Falls, 1856, by Americans. 

Tennessee. Named in 1796 from its principal river, that from an Indian 
word meaning curved spoon, or river with the great bend. Capital, 
Nashville. Motto, Agriculture, Commerce. Nickname, the Big Bend 
state. Area, 42,050 square miles. Population, 1900, 2,020,616. Set- 
tled at Ft. Loudon, 1757, by the English. 

Texas. Name claimed to be from both the Spanish word "Tigus, " 
meaning covered houses, and the Indian word "Tachies" or 
"Tejas, " meaning friends. Capital, Austin. Nickname, the Lone 
Star state, from the lone star its flag bore when an independent 
republic from 1837 to 1845. Flower, Blue Bonnet. Area, 265,780 
square miles. It is the largest state in the Union, 740 miles in 



APPENDIX 623 

length, 825 in breadth, and has a coast of over 400 miles. Its 
admission into the Union in 1845 was the occasion of the "Mexican 
war." It sold to the national government all claims to lands west 
and north of the Eio Grande and Arkansas rivers for $10,000,000. 
In entering the Union reserved the right to dispose of all its public 
lands and to divide into five states, should future growth and devel- 
opment justify, the only state having such right without the consent 
of Congress. It was first inhabited by the Spaniards in 1580; by 
the French, at Matagorda Bay, in 1680. It has the largest public 
school fund of any state in the Union. Population, 1900, 3,048,710. 

Utah. Named from the Indians of that region, the word variously 
spelled Uto, Uteh, Ute and Youta, meaning mountain home. Capital, 
Salt Lake City. Flower, Sego Lily. Area, 84,970 square miles. 
Population, 1900, 276,749. Settled at Salt Lake City, 1847, by 
Americans. 

Vermont. Named from the French words "Verd" and "Mont," mean- 
ing Green mountain. Capital, Montpelier. Motto, Freedom and 
Unity. Nickname, the Green Mountain state. Flower, Ked Clover. 
Area, 9,565 square miles. Population, 1900, 343,641. Settled at 
Fort Dummer, 1764, by the English. 

Virginia. Named in 1584 in honor of Elizabeth, England's virgin queen. 
Capital, Eichmond. Motto, Sic semper tyrannus; meaning. Thus 
always to tyrants, its seal showing a frontiersman with sword and 
gun, standing with one foot on the prostrate body of a slain tyrant 
Nicknames, the Old Dominion, Mother of Presidents, from so many 
of our early presidents being chosen from her illustrious sons; 
Mother of States, Kentucky being formed from her territory, and 
her claim to the territory from which was formed the states of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Area, 42,450 square 
miles. Population, 1900, 1,854,184. Settled at Jamestown, 1607, 
by the English. 

Washington. Named in honor of George Washington. Capital, Olympia. 
Motto, Al-ki; meaning. Bye and bye. Nickname, Chinook state. 
Flower, Khododendron. Area, 69,180 square miles. Population, 
1900, 518,103. Settled at Astoria, 1811, by Americans. 

West Virginia. Taking its name the same as Virginia, being formed 
therefrom during the Civil War. Capital, Charleston, Nickname, 
Panhandle state. Flower, Ehododendron. Area, 24,780 square miles. 
Population, 1900, 958,800. Settled at Wheeling, 1774, by the Eng- 
lish. 

Wisconsin. Named from its principal river, that from the Indian word 
meaning westward flowing, gathering waters. Capital, Madison. 
Motto, Forward. Nickname, Badger state. Area, 56,040 square 
miles. Population, 1900, 2,069,042. Settled at Green Bay, 1670, by 
the French. 

Wyoming. Named from an Indian word, "Maughwauwame," meaning 
large plains. Capital, Cheyenne. Motto, Cedant arma togae; mean- 
ing, Let arms yield to the gown, or the military subordinate to the 
civil authority. Area, 97,890 square miles. Population, 1900, 92,- 
531. Settled at Fort Laramie, 1834, by Americans. 

Historians do not agree as to many of the dates in the above tables. 
They are taken from the statistical abstract published by the government. 



624 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 



GROWTH IN AEEA; ACQUISITION OF TEERITORY. 

Square 

Acquired. miles. Paid. 

Original thirteen states 1783 '827,844 

Louisiana purchase 1803 1,182,752 $27,267,621 

Florida 1819 59,269 6,489,768 

Texas 1845 371,063 

Mexican purchase 1848 522,568 15,000,000 

Bought of Texas 1850 96,707 16,000,000 

Gadsden purchase from Mexico 1853 45,535 10,000,000 

Alaska, from Kussia 1867 590,884 7,200,000 

Hawaii 1898 6,740 

Porto Eieo 1899 3,600 

Philippine Islands 1899 143,000 20,000,000 

Guam, Island of 1899 200 

Tutuila Group, Samoa Islands 1900 73 

Cagayan de Jolo, Cibuta 1900 743 100,000 

3,850,938 

Population, 1790, 3,929,214; 1900, exclusive of our acquisitions from 
Spain, 76,303,387; without Alaska, Hawaii, Indian territory and the 
Indian reservations, 75,568,686. 



APPENDIX 



625 




14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 
40 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46 



The Constitution adopted — 

Delaware Dec. 6, 1787 

Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 

New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 

Georgia Jan. 2, 1788 

Connecticut Jan, 9, 1788 

Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788 

Maryland April 28, 1788 

South Carolina May 23, 1788 

New Hampshire June 21, 1788 

Virginia June 25, 1788 

New_ York July 26, 1788 

North Carolina Nov, 21, 1789 

Khode Island May 29, 1790 

Admitted to the Union — 

Vermont March 4, 1791 

Kentucky June 1, 1792 

Tennessee June 1, 1796 

Ohio Nov. 29, 1802 

Louisiana April 8, 1812 

Indiana Dec. 11, 1816 

Mississippi Dec. 10, 1817 

Illinois Dec. 3, 1818 

Alabama Dec. 14, 1819 

Maine March 3, 1820 

Missouri Aug. 10, 1821 

Arkansas June 15, 1836 

Michigan Jan. 26, 1837 

Florida March 3, 1845 

Texas Dee. 29, 1845 

Iowa Dec. 28, 1846 

Wisconsin May 29, 1848 

California Sept, 9, 1850 

Minnesota May 11, 1858 

Oregon Feb. 14, 1859 

Ka-nsas Jan. 29, 1861 

West Virginia June 19, 1863 

Nevada Oct, 31, 1864 

Nebraska March 1, 1867 

Colorado Aug, 1, 1876 

North Dakota Nov. 2, 1889 

South Dakota Nov, 2, 1889 

Montana Nov, 8, 1889 

Washington Nov, 11, 1889 

Idaho July 3,1890 

Wyoming July 11, 1890 

Utah Jan. 4, 1896 

Oklahoma Nov, 16,1907 



Vote. 
Unanimous 
46 to 25 
Unanimous 
Unanimous 
128 to 40 
187 to 168 
63 to 11 
149 to 73 
57 to 46 
89 to 79 
30 to 27 
193 to 75 
34 to 32 

Administration. 
Washington 's 
Washington 's 
Washington 's 
Jefferson 's 
Madison 's 
Madison 's 
Monroe 's 
Monroe 's 
Monroe 's 
Monroe 's 
Monroe 's 
Jackson 's 
Jackson 's 
Tyler 's 
Polk 's 
Polk 's 
Polk 's 
Fillmore's 
Buchanan's 
Buchanan 's 
Buchanan 's 
Lincoln 's 
Lincoln 's 
Johnson's 
Grant 's 

Benjamin Harrison 's 
Benjamin Harrison 's 
Benjamin Harrison 's 
Benjamin Harrison 's 
Benjamin Harrison 's 
Benjamin Harrison 's 
Cleveland 's 
Roosevelt 's 



636 



THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEKS 



The following is a list of all members of Presidential cabinets since 
the organization of the federal government : 



SECKETAKIES OF STATE. 

(See page 615.) 



SECKETAKIES OF THE 

ISlame. 
Alexander Hamilton.. . . 

Oliver Wolcott 

Samuel Dexter 

Albert Gallatin 

George W. Campbell.. .. 
Alexander J. Dallas.. .. 
William H. Crawford. . . 

Richard Rush 

Samuel D. Ingham 

Louis McLane 

William J. Duane 

Roger B. Taney 

Levi Woodbury 

Thomas Ewing 

Walter Forward 

John C. Spencer 

George M. Bibb 

Robert J. Walker 

William M. Meredith. . . 

Thomas Corwin 

James Guthrie 

Howell Cobb 

Philip P. Thomas 

John A. Dix 

Salmon P. Chase 

Wm. Pitt Fessenden. . .. 

Hugh McCulloch 

George S. Boutwell 

William A. Richardson . . 
Benjamin H. Bristow. . . 

Lot M. Morrill 

John Sherman 

William Windom 

Charles J. Folger 

Walter Q. Gresham 

Hugh McCulloch 

Daniel Manning 

Charles S. Fairchild. . .. 

William Windom 

Charles Foster 

John G. Carlisle 

Lyman J. Gage 

Leslie M. Shaw . 

George B. Cortelyou.. . . 
George B. Cortelyou. . . . 
Franklin MacVeagh. . . . 



TREASDEY. 

Appointed 
Sept. 11, 1789 
Feb. 2 
1 



Jan. 

May 14 

Feb. 9 

Oct. 6 

Oct. 22 

Mch. 7 

Mch. 6 
Au 

May 29 

Sept. 23 

June 27: 

Mch. 5: 

Sept. 13 

Mch. 3 

June 15 

Mch. 6 

Mch. 8 

July 23 

Mch. 7 
Mch 

Dec. 12 

Jan. 11 

Mch. 7 

July 1 

Mch. 7 

Mch. 11 

Mch. 17 

June 4 

July 7 

Mch. 8 

Mch. 5 

Oct. 27 

Sept. 24 

Oct. 28 

Mch. 6 

April 1 

Mch. 5 
Feb 



Mch. 
Mch. 
Jan. 
Mch. 
Mch. 
Mch. 



SECKETAKIES OF WAR. 

Henry Knox Sept. 12 

Timothy Pickering Jan. 2 

James McHenry Jan. 27 

Samuel Dexter May 13 

Roger Griswold Feb. 3 

Henry Dearborn Mch. 5 

William Bustis Mch. 7 

John Armstrong Jan. 13 

James Monroe. Sept. 27 

William H. Crawford. . .Aug. 1 

George Graham 

John C. Calhoun Oct. 8, 1817 



1795 

1801 
1801 
1814 
1814 
1816 
1825 
1829 
2,1831 
1833 
1833 
1834 
1841 
1841 
1843 
1844 
1845 
1849 
1850 
1853 
1857 
1860 
1861 
1861 
1864 
1865 
1869 
1873 
1874 
1876 
1877 
1881 
1881 
1884 
1884 
1886 
1887 
1889 
1891 
1893 
1897 
1902 
1905 
1907 
1909 

1789 
1795 
1796 
1800 
1801 
1801 
1809 
1813 
1814 
1815 



Name. Appointed. 

James Barbour Mch. 7, 1825 

Peter B. Porter May 26, 1828 

John H. Eaton Mch. 9, 1829 

Lewis Cass Aug. 1, 1831 

Joel R. Poinsett Mch. 7, 1837 

John Bell Mch. 5, 1841 

John C. Spencer Oct. 12, 1841 

James M. Porter Mch. 8, 1843 

William Wilkins Feb. 15, 1844 

William L. Marcy Mch. 6, 1845 

George W. Crawford.. ..Mch. 8, 1849 

Charles M. Conrad Aug. 15, 1850 

Jefferson Davis Mch. 5, 1853 

John B. Floyd Mar. 6, 1857 

Joseph Holt Jan. 18, 1861 

Simon Cameron Mch. 5, 1861 

Edwin M. Stanton Jan. 15, 1862 

Ulysses S. Grant Aug. 12, 1867 

Lorenzo Thomas Feb. 21, 1868 

John M. Schofield May 28, 1868 

John A. Rawlins Mch. 11, 1869 

William W. Belknap.. . .Oct. 25, 1869 

Alphonso Taft Mch. 8, 1876 

James D. Cameron May 22, 1876 

George W. McCrary.. ..Mch. 12, 1877 

Alexander Ramsey Dec. 10, 1879 

Robert T. Lincoln Mch. 5, 1881 

William C. Endicott.. . .Mch. 6, 1885 

Redfleld Proctor Mch. 5, 1889 

Stephen B. Blkins Dec. 17, 1891 

Daniel S. Lamont Mch. 6, 1893 

Russell A. Alger Mch. 5, 1897 

Elihu Root Aug. 1, 1899 

Elihu Root Mch. 5, 1901 

Elihu Root , .. Sept. 14, 1901 

William H. Taft Feb. 1, 1904 

William H. Taft Mch. 6, 1905 

Luke E. Wright .July 1, 1908 

Jacob M. Dickinson.. ..Mar. 5, 1909 



SECRETARIES OF THE NAVY 

Benjamin Stoddert May 21, 

Robert Smith July 

J. Crowinshield Mch. 

Paul Hamilton Mch. 

William Jones Jan. 

B. W. Crowinshield Dec. 

Smith Thompson Nov. 

Samuel L. Southard. . . .Sept. 

John Branch Mch. 

Levi Woodbury May 

Mahlon Dickerson June 30, 

James K. Paulding June 25, 

George E. Badger Mch. 5, 

Abel P. Upshur Sept. 

David Henshaw July 

Thomas W. Gilmer Feb. 

John Y. Mason Mch. 14, 

George Bancroft Mch. 10, 

John Y. Mason Sept. 9, 

William B. Preston Mch. 8, 

William A. Graham. .. .July 22, 

John P. Kennedy July 

James C. Dobbin Mch. 



15, 
3, 
7, 

12, 

19, 
9, 

16, 
9, 

23, 



13, 

24, 
15, 



22, 
7, 



1798 
1801 
1805 
1809 
1813 
1814 
1818 
1823 
1829 
1831 
1834 
1838 
1841 
1841 
1843 
1844 
1844 
1845 
1846 
1849 
1850 
1852 
1858 



APPENDIX 



627 



Name. Appointed. 

Isaac Toucey Mch. 6, 1857 

Gideon Welles Mch. 5, 1861 

Adolph E. Borie Mch. 5, 1869 

George M. Robeson June 25, 1869 

Richard W. Thompson . .Mch. 12, 1877 

Nathan Goff, Jr Jan. 6, 1881 

William H. Hunt Mch. 5, 1881 

William E. Chandler.. ..April 1, 1882 

William C. Whitney. . . .Mch. 6, 1885 

Beniamin F. Tracy Mch. 5, 1889 

Hilary A. Herbert Mch. 6, 1893 

John D. Long Mch. 5, 1807 

William H. Moody Mch. 10, 1902 

Paul Morton July 1, 1904 

Paul Morton Mch. 6, 1905 

Charles J. Bonaparte. ..July 1, 1905 

Victor H. Metcalf Dec. 17, 1906 

Truman H. Newberry. . .Dec. 1, 1908 

George von L. Meyer. . .Mch. 5, 1909 

SECRETARIES OF THE INTERIOR. 

Thomas Ewing Mch. 8, 1849 

Alex. H. H. Stewart. . .Sept. 12, 1850 

Robert McClelland Mch. 7, 1853 

Jacob Thompson Mch. 6, 1857 

Caleb B. Smith Mch. 5, 1861 

John P. Usher Jan. 8, 186-3 

James Harlan May 15, 1865 

Orville H. Browning.. . .July 27, 1866 

Jacob D. Cox Mch. 5, 1869 

Columbus Delano Nov. 1, 1870 

Zachariah Chandler. .. .Oct. 19, 1875 

Carl Schurz Mch. 12, 1877 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. . ..Mch. 5, 1881 

Henry M. Teller April 6, 1882 

L. Q. C. Lamar Mch. 6, 1885 

William P. Vilas Jan. 16, 1888 

John W. Noble Mch. 5, 1889 

Hoke Smith Mch. 6, 1893 

David R. Francis Aug. 24, 1896 

Cornelius N. Bliss Mch. 5, 1897 

Ethan A. Hitchcock.. ..Dec. 21, 1898 

Ethan A. Hitchcock. . . .Mch. 5, 1901 

James R. Garfield Mch. 5, 1907 

Richard A. Ballinger. . .Mch. 5, 1909 

POSTMASTERS-GENERAL. 

Samuel Osgood Sept. 26, 1789 

Timothy Pickering Aug. 12, 1791 

Joseph Habersham Feb. 25, 1795 

Gideon Granger Nov. 28, 1801' 

Return J. Meigs, Jr.. ..Mch. 17, 1814 

John McLean June 26, 1823 

William T. Barry Mch. 9, 1829 

Amos Kendall May 1, 1835 

John M. Niles May 25, 1840 

Francis Granger Mch. 6, 1841 

Charles A. Wickliffe. . . .Sept. 13, 1841 

Cave Johnson Mch. 6, 1845 

Jacob Collamer Mch. 8, 1849 

Nathan K. Hall July 23, 1850 

Samuel D. Hubbard. . . .Aug. 31, 1852 

James Campbell Mch. 5, 1853 

Aaron V. Brown Mch. 6, 1857 

Joseph Holt Mch. 14, 1859 

Horatio King Feb. 12, 1861 

Montgomery Blair Mch. 5, 1861 

William Dennison Sept. 24, 1864 

Alexander W. Randall . .July 25, 1866 

John A. J. Creswell. . . .Mch. 5, 1869 

Marshall Jewell Aug. 24, 1874 

James M. Tyner July 12, 1876 



Name. Appointed. 

David McK. Key Mch. 12, 1877 

Florace Maynard June 2, 1880 

Thomas L. James Mch. 5, 1881 

Timothy O. Howe Dec. 20, 1881 

Walter Q. Gresham April 3, 1883 

Frank Hatton Oct. 14, 1884 

William F. Vilas Mch. 6, 1885 

Don M. Dickinson Jan. 16, 1888 

John Wanamaker Mch. 5, 1889 

Wilson S. Bissell Mch. 6, 1893 

William L. Wilson Feb. 28, 1895 

James A. Gary Mch. 5, 1897 

Charles E. Smith April 21, 1898 

Henry C. Payne Jan. 8, 1902 

Robert J. Wynne Oct. 10, 1904 

George B. Cortelyou.. . .Mch. 6, 1905 
George von L. Meyer. ..Mch. 4, 1907 
Frank H. Hitchcock. . . .Mch. 5, 1909 

ATTORNEYS-GENERAL. 

Edmund Randolph Sept. 26, 1789 

William Bradford Jan. 27, 1794 

Charles Lee Dec. 10, 1795 

Theophilus Parsons. ... Feb. 20, 1801 

Levi Lincoln Mch. 5, 1801 

Robert Smith Mch. 3, 1805 

John Breckinridge Aug. 7, 1805 

Cffisar A. Rodney Jan. 28, 1807 

William Pinkney Dec. 11, 1811 

Richard Rush Feb. 10, 1814 

William Wirt Nov. 13, 1817 

John M. Berrien Mch. 9, 1829 

Roger B. Taney July 20, 1831 

Benjamin F. Butler. .. .Nov. 15, 1833 

Fehx Grundy July 5, 1838 

Henry D. Gilpin .Tan. 11, 1840 

John J. Crittenden Mch. 5, 1841 

Hugh S. Legare Sept. 13, 1841 

John Nelson July 1, 1843 

John Y. Mason Mch. 6, 1845 

Nathan Clifford Oct. 17, 1846 

Isaac Toucey June 21, 1848 

Reverdy Johnson Mch. 8, 1849 

John J. Crittenden July 22, 1850 

Caleb Gushing Mch. 7, 1853 

Jeremiah S. Black Mch. 6, 1857 

Edwin M. Stanton Dec. 20, 1860 

Edward Bates Mch. 5, 1861 

Titian J. Coffey June 22, 1863 

James Speed Dec. 2, 1864 

Henry Stanbery July 23, 1866 

William M. Evarts July 15, 1868 

E. Rockwood Hoar Mch. 5, 1869 

Amos T. Ackerman.. ..June 23, 1870 

George H. Williams.. ..Dec. 14, 1871 

Edwards Pierrepont. . . .April 26, 1875 

Alphonso Taft May 22, 1876 

Charles Devens Mch. 12, 1877 

Wayne MacVeagh Mch. 5, 1881 

Benjamin H. Brewster .. Dec. 19, 1881 

Augustus H. Garland. ..Mch. 6, 1885 

W. H. H. Miller Mch. 5, 1889 

Richard Olney Mch. 6, 1893 

Judson Harmon .June 7, 1895 

Joseph McKenna Mch. 5, 1897 

John W. Griggs Jan. 25. 1898 

John W. Griggs Mch. 5, 1901 

Philander C. Knox April 5, 1901 

William H. Moodv Julv 1, 1904 

William H. Moody Mch. 6, 1905 

Charles J. Bonaparte. ..Dec. 17, 1906 

Geo. W. Wickersham. ..Mch. 5, 1909 



628 



THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 



SECKETAEIES OP AGEICULTUEE. 

Name. Appointed. 

Norman J. Colman Feb. 13, 1889 

Jeremiah M. Rusk Mch. 4, 1889 

J. Sterling Morton Mch. 6, 1893 

James Wilson Mch. 5, 1897 

James Wilson Mch. 5, 1901 

James Wilson Mch. 5, 1905 

James Wilson Mch. 5, 1909 



SECEETAKIES OF COJIJIEECE AXD LABOE. 

Name. Appointed. 

George B. Cortelyou.. ..Feb. 18, 1903 

Victor H. Metcalf .July 1, 1904 

Victor H. Metcalf Mch. 6, 1905 

Oscar S. Straus Dec. 17, 1906 

Charles Nagel Mch. 5, 1909 



Congrei 


5S. Year. 


1- 2 


1789-92 


2 


1792 


2- 3 


1792-94 


3 


1794-95 


3- 4 


1795-96 


4 


1796-97 


4- 5 


1797 


5 


179- 


5 


1797-98 


5 


1798 


5 


1798-99 


5 


1799 


6 


1799-1800 


6 


1800 


6 


1800-01 


6 


1801 


7 


1801-02 


7 


1802-03 


8 


1803-04 


8 


1804-05 


8 


1805 


9 


1805-07 


9-10 


1807-08 


10 


1808-09 


10-11 


1809 


11 


1809-10 


11 


1810-11 


11-12 


1811-12 


12-18 


1812-13 


13 


1813-14 


13-15 


1814-18 


15-16 


1818-19 


16-19 


1820-26 


19-20 


1826-28 


20-22 


1828-32 


22 


1832 


22-23 


1832-34 


23 


1834-35 


24 


1835-36 


24-26 


1836-41 


26-27 


1841-42 


27-29 


1842-46 


29-30 


1846-49 



PEESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 

Name. State from. Born. Died. 

John Langdon New Hampshire 1739 1819 

Eichard Henry Lee. . . . Virginia 1732 1794 

John Langdon New Hampshire 1739 1819 

Ealph Izard Sonth Carolina 1742 1804 

Henry Tazewell Virginia 1753 1799 

Samuel Livermore New Hampshire 1732 1803 

William Bingham Pennsylvania 1751 1804 

William Bradford Ehode Island 1729 1808 

Jacob Eead South Carolina 1752 1816 

Theodore Sedgwick. . . . Massachusetts 1746 1813 

John Laurence New York 1750 1810 

James Eose Pennsylvania 1762 1847 

Samuel Livermore New Hampshire 1732 1803 

Uriah Tracy Connecticut 1755 1807 

John E. Howard Maryland 1752 1827 

James Hillhouse Connecticut 1754 1832 

Abraham Baldwin Georgia 1754 1807 

Stephen E. Bradley Vermont 1754 1830 

John Brown Kentucky 1757 1837 

Jesse Franklin North Carolina 1758 1823 

Joseph Anderson Tennessee 1757 1837 

Abraham Baldwin Georgia 1754 1807 

Samuel Smith Maryland 1752 1839 

Stephen E. Bradley. . Vermont 1754 1830 

John Milledge Georgia 1757 1818 

Andrew Gregg Pennsylvania 1755 1835 

John Gaillard South Carolina 1765 1826 

John Pope Kentucky 1770 1845 

Wm. H. Crawford Georgia 1772 1834 

Joseph B. Varnum. ... Massachusetts 1750 1821 

John Gaillard South Carolina 1765 1826 

James Barbour Virginia 1775 1842 

John Gaillard South Carolina 1765 1826 

Nathaniel Macon North Carolina 1757 1837 

Samuel Smith Maryland 1752 1839 

L. W. Tazewell Virginia 1774 1860 

Hugh L. White Tennessee 1773 1840 

George Poindexter. ... Mississippi 1779 1853 

John Tyler Virginia 1790 1862 

Wm. E. King Alabama 1786 1853 

Samuel L. Southard. . . New Jersey 1787 1842 

Willie P. Mangum North Carolina 1792 1861- 

David E. Atchison Missouri 1807 1886 



Congress. Year. 


31-32 


1850-52 


32 '^ 


1852-54 


33-34 


1854-57 


34 


1857 


35-36 


1857-61 


36-38 


1861-64 


38 


1864-65 


39 


1866-67 


40 


1867-69 


41-42 


1869-73 


43 


1873-75 


44-45 


1875-79 


46 


1879-81 


47 


1881 


48 


1881-83 


48 


1883-85 


49 


1885-87 


49-51 


1887-91 


52 


1891-93 


53 


1893-95 


54-60 


1895 



APPENDIX 629 

Name. State from. Born. Died. 

Wm. R. King Alabama 1786 1853 

David R. Atchison Missouri 1807 1886 

Jesse D. Bright Indiana 1812 1875 

James M. Mason Virginia 1798 1871 

Benj. Fitzpatrick Alabama 1802 1869 

Solomon Foot Vermont 1802 1866 

Daniel Clark New Hampshire 1809 1891 

LaFayette S. Foster. ..Connecticut 1806 1880 

Benj. F. Wade Ohio 1800 1878 

Henry B. Anthony Rhode Island 1815 1884 

Matt. H. Carpenter Wisconsin 1824 1881 

Thos. W. Ferry Michigan 1827 1896 

Allen G. Thurman Ohio 1813 1895 

Thomas F. Bayard Delaware 1828 1898 

David Davis Illinois 1815 1886 

Geo. F. Edmunds Vermont 1828 

John Sherman Ohio 1823 1900 

John J. Ingalls Kansas 1833 1900 

Chas. F. Manderson . . . Nebraska 1837 .... 

Tsham G. Harris Tennessee 1818 1897 

William P. Frye Maine 1831 



SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



Fredk. A. Muhlenberg. Pennsylvania 1750 1801 

Jonathan Trumbull. . ..(Connecticut 1740 1809 

F. A. Muhlenberg Pennsylvania 1750 1801 

Jonathan Dayton New Jersey 1760 1824 

Theodore Sedgwick. .. .Massachusetts 1746 1813 

Nathaniel Macon North Carolina 1757 1837 

Joseph B. Varnum. . . .Massachusetts 1750 1821 

Henry Clay Kentucky 1777 1852 

Langdon Cheves South Carolina 1776 1857 

Henry Clay Kentucky 1777 1852 

John W. Taylor New York 1784 1854 

Philip P. Barbour Virginia 1783 1841 

Henry Clay Kentucky 1777 1852 

John W. Taylor New York 1784 1854 

Andrew Stevenson .... Virginia 1784 1857 

John Bell Tennessee 1797 1869 

James K. Polk Tennessee 1795 1849 

R. M. T. Hunter Virginia 1809 1887 

John White Kentucky 1805 1845 

John W. Jones Virginia 1805 184S 

John W. Davis Indiana 1799 1850 

Robert C. Winthrop... Massachusetts 1809 1894 

Howell Cobb Georgia 1815 1868 

Linn Boyd Kentucky 1800 1859 

Nathaniel P. Banks. . . Massachusetts ...... 1816 1894 

James L. Orr South Carolina 1822 1873 

William Pennington. . . New Jersey 1796 1862 

Galusha A. Grow Pennsylvania 1823 1907 

Schuyler Colfax Indiana 1823 1885 



1 


1789-91 


2 


1791-93 


3 


1793-95 


4- 5 


1795-99 


6 


1799-1801 


7- 9 


1801-07 


10-11 


1807-11 


11-13 


1811-14 


13 


1814-15 


14-16 


1815-20 


16 


1820-21 


17 


1821-23 


18 


1823-25 


19 


1825-27 


20-23 


1827-34 


23 


1834-35 


24-25 


1835-39 


26 


1839-41 


27 


1841-43 


28 


1843-45 


29 


1845-47 


30 


1847-49 


31 


1849-51 


32-33 


1851-55 


34 


1855-57 


35 


1857-59 


36 


1859-61 


37 


1861-63 


38-40 


1863-69 



630 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FKAMEES 

Congress. Tear. Name. State from. Born. Died. 

41-43 1869-75 James G. Blaine Maine 1830 1893 

44 1875-76 Michael C. Kerr Indiana 1827 1876 

44-46 1876-81 Samuel J. Randall Pennsylvania 1828 1890 

47 1881-83 John W. Keifer Ohio 1836 

48-50 1883-89 John G. Carlisle Kentucky 1835 

51 1889-91 Thomas B. Reed. Maine 1839 1902 

52-53 1891-95 Charles F. Crisp Georgia 1845 1896 

54-55 1895-99 Thomas B. Reed Maine 1839 1902 

56-57 1899-1903 D. B. Henderson Iowa 1840 1896 

58-60 1903 Joseph' G. Cannon Illinois 1836 .... 



APPENDIX 631 



AMEEICA 

By Samuel Francis Smith 

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 21, 1808; died November 16, 1895. 
[This hymn was written while Mr. Smith was a student at Andover 
Theological Seminary in 1832 for a children's celebration of July 4th, in 
Park Siieet Church, Boston, and was first sung there.] 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty. 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died! 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride! 
From every mountain side, 

Let freedom ring. 

My native country, thee. 
Land of the noble free. 

Thy name I love; 
I love thy rocks and rills. 
Thy woods and templed hills; 
My heart with rapture thrills, 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze. 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom 's song ; 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake. 
Let rocks their silence break, 

The sound prolong. 

Our father's God, to Thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To Thee we sing; 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by Thy might, 

Great God, our King! 



632 THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS FEAMEES 

THE STAE SPANGLED BANNEE 

By Fkancis Scott Key 

Born in Frederick Co., Md., 1779 ; died in Baltimore, D. C, 1843. 

[Written after the liombardment of Port McHenry, 1814. Text slightly re- 
vised by comparison with the fac-simile of a copy made by the Author in 1840.] 

O ! say, can you see, by the dawn 's early light. 

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming — 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the clouds of the fight 
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming! 

And the rockets ' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; 

Choeus 

O! say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave 

O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave? 

On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes. 

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep. 
As it fitfully blows now conceals, now discloses? 

Now it catches the gleam of the morning 's first beam. 
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream; 

'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner; O! long may it wave 

O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave! 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore 

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion 

A home and a country should leave us no more? 

Their blood has wash 'd out their foul footsteps ' pollution. 

No refuge could save the hireling and slave 

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave; 

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave 

O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave. 

O! thus be it ever, when freeman shall stand 

Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation! 

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav 'n-rescued land 

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. 

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. 
And this be our motto — ' ' In God Is Our Trust : ' ' 

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave 

O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave! 



INDEX 



Adams, John, account of, writing of 
Declaration of Independence, 171- 
72. 
biographical sketch of, 77. 
on the Confederation and Continen- 
tal Congress, L'2-1. 
on independence not desired, 82. 
on Oliver Ellsworth, 206. 
on Roger Sherman, 277-78. 
tribute to Samuel ,\dams, 71. 
tribute to Elbridge Gerry, 256, 258. 
Adams, Samuel, biographicar sketch of, 
04. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 
Adjournment of Congress, limitations 
on, 491. 
by the President, 528. 
Admission of new states, manner of, 
535-6. 
of states into the Union, 625. 
Albany Convention. 28. 
Alexandria Convention, call for, 229. 
resolution of. for Constitutional Con- 
vention. 231. 
Ambassadors and Ministers, appoint- 
ment of, 525. 
received by the President, 526. 
Amendments to the Constitution, dis- 
cussion of, 539-49. 
how made, 537-8. 
Andros, Sir Edmund, tyranny of, 8. 
Annapolis Convention, purpose called 
for, 230. 
resolution of, 231. 
Anthems, National, 631-32. 
Appointments by the President, 535-6. 
Apportionment of Representatives in 
Congress, 48S-4. 
of taxes, 483-4 ; 504. 
Approval of Acts of Congress by the 

President, 493-4. 
Area of States, 618-23. 
Arms, right of the people to bear, 
541-2. 
to bear concealed, prohibited, 542. 
Army, limitation of appropriations for, 

499. 
Arrest of Members of Congress, pro 

hibition of, 492. 
Articles of Confederation, Appendix, 
570-77. 
no recognition of people by, 208-9. 
weakness benefits, lessons of, 209-12. 
when adopted. 208-9. 
when proposed, 208. 
Attainder, bill of, 503-4. 

prohibited by the general govern- 
ment, 503. 
prohibited by states, 506. 



Attorney General, 529, 551, 554. 

Bail, shall not be excessive, 545. 
Baldwin, Abraham, biographical sketch 
of, 405. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 
Bancroft, George, tribute to Samuel 
Adams, 71. 
tribute to John Dickinson, 383. 
tribute to Roger Sherman, 277. 
on George Mason, 408. 
Barlow, Joel, tribute to Abraham Bald- 
win, 408. 
Bassett, Richard, biographical sketch 

of, 374. 
,Bartlett, Josiah, biographical sketch 
of, 56. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 
Bayard, James A. and Thomas F, 375. 
Bedford, Gunning, Jr., biographical 
sketch of, 376. 
outburst of, in the Convention, 241, 
376. 
Bernstorf, Count, tribute to Benjamin 

Franklin, 335. 
Berkeley, Governor, arbitrary execution 
of Mr. Drummond by, 5. 
denunciation of education by, 5. 
king's censure of, 5. 
tyranny of, 5. 
Bill of Attainder, prohibition of, 503-4. 
Bill of Rights, 539-40. 

of Virginia, drawn by George Mason, 

410-11. 
opposition to Constitution on ac- 
count of absence of, 409, 539. 
Bills for support of war, limitations 

on, 499. 
Bills for raising revenue, 493. 
Bills and laws, approval and passage 
of, 493-4. 
passing of, over President's veto, 
494. 
Binney, Horace, on Jared Ingersoll, 

.340, 
Biographical sketches of signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, 48- 
207. 
of framers of the Constitution, 249- 
476. 
Blair, John, biographical sketch of, 

396. 
Botta, Italian Historian, on Robert 

Morris, 359. 
Blount, William, Biographical sketch 
of, 436. 
navigation of Mississippi, relation 
to, 400. 



633 



634 



INDEX 



Boudinot, Elias, President of Continen- 
tal Congress, 42. 

Braxton, Carter, biograptileal sketch of, 
187. 

Brayton, Judge, on the Declaration of 
' Independence, 50. 

Brearley, David, biographical sketch of, 
304. 

Broom, Jacob, biographical sketch of, 
378. 

Brown University established, 25. 

Burgesses, House of, 4. 

Burke, Edmund, on Culture in Amer- 
ica, 26. 
on trial by jury, 488. 

Burr, Aaron, vote for President, 511. 
on Oliver Ellsworth, 267. 

Butler, Pierce, biographical sketch of, 
445. 
remarks of, as to the people, 240. 

Cabinet, President's, members and du- 
ties of, 550-56. 
established by Washington, 550. 
members of, 1789 to 1909, 626-627. 

Calhoun, John C. — 

on Oliver Ellsworth, 265, 279. 
on Roger Sherman, 279. 

Canada, alienation of, from the Colo- 
nies, 14. 

Capitals of States, 618-23. 

Capitation tax, 504. 

Carolina, North, early government of, 
10. 
voted against ratification of the 
Constitution, 246. 

Carolina, South, early settlement and 
government of, 10. 

Carpenters' Hall, 235. 

Carrington, Edward, efforts for the 
Constitution, 244. 

Carroll, Charles, biographical sketch 
of, 159. 

Carroll, Daniel, biographical sketch of, 
391. 

Caucus, origin of name, 65. 

Causes of the Revolution, 33. 

Changes in the Constitution by Com- 
mittee on Style and Arrange- 
ment, 237-39. 

Charles II, denunciation of Governor 
Berkeley by, 5. 

Charter Colonies, 17. 

Charters as Constitutions, 3, 8, 17. 

Charter of Cornecticut, 7. 

Charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 

Charter of Rhode Island, 7, 8. 

Charter of Virginia, 4. 

Charter Oak, 8. 

Chase, Chief Justice, on mdestructi- 

bility of Union and States, 475. 
Chase, Samuel, biographical sketch of, 

157. 
Chatham, Lord — ^„„„„ 

on the Continental Congress, 166-67. 

on Benjamin Franklin, 332. 
Chauncey. Charles — 

on Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 458. 
Churches in the Colonies, 35-41. 
Citizens, who may be, 546-47-57-8. 

privileges and immunities of, 535. 



Citizenship does not confer right to 
vote, 548. 
National Government regulates, 546. 
Clark, Abraham, biographical sketch 

of, 130. 
Clinton, George, Governor, opposition 

to Constitution, 246. 
Clymer, George, biographical sketch 

of, 319. 
Coal, discovery of, in America, 13. 
Coining money, 497-98, 506. 
Colleges, dates of establishment in the 

Colonies, 23-25. 
Colonial Government, 3. 
Colonial wars, educational value of, 
15-16. 
estranging Canada, uniting the Col- 
onies, 14. 
long period of, 13. 
Colonies, customs, laws, etc., 18-19. 
Columbia College established, 25. 
Commander-in-Chief, President is, 525- 

26. 
Commerce in the Colonies, 20, 33, 35. 
in the states, 220-223. 
Inter-state, 496, 557. 
Regulation of, 496. 
Committee for Articles of Confedera- 
tion, 208. 
Committee to prepare Declaration of 
Independence, 45. 
of Detail of Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 236. 
of Style and Arrangement, 237, 
476-80. 
Compact of the Pilgrims, 6. . 
Compensation of Judges, 528-29. 
of Members of Congress, 491-92. 
of President, 524-25. 
Conclusion, general summary, 566-76. 
Congress, Continental, Presidents of, 
41-2. 
decadence of, influence of, 212. 
first, members of, 40-1. 
resolution of, calling Constitutional 

convention, 232. 
resolution of, submitting the. Con- 
stitution to the States, 244. 
vote in, by states, 42. 
Congress, Stamp Act, 29. 

United States, what it consists of, 

482. 
adjournment of, 491, 528. 
each house of has sole power to 

discipline its members, 490. 
each house of, sole judge of elec- 
tions, returns and qualifications 
of its members, 490. 
powers of, 494-502. 
privileges of members of, 491-92. 
qualification of members of, 483-87. 
when to assemble, 489-90. 
Confederation, the, 208-13. 
Confederation, Articles of, Appendix, 
570-77. 
beneficial lessons of, 213. 
committee to frame, 208. 
discussion of weakness of, 209-13. 
when adopted, 208-9. 
when proposed, 208. 
Connecticut, Bible as law in, 24. 
Charter of, 7. 



INDEX 



635 



Constitution, the, Appendix, 587-96. 
not the result of impulse, but evolu- 
tion, 30. 
amendments of 599-602. 
battle for, 222-49. 
changes in by Committee on Style 

and Arrangement, 237-39. 
comments of James Anthony Fronde 

on, 474-75. 
comments of Gladstone on, 474. 
first written in America, 7. 
framers of, 249-475. 
preamble to, discussion of, 476-82. 
amendments, provision for, 539. 
discussion of, 476-550. 
Hamilton's plan, 300-01. 
Paterson's plan, 318-19. 
Pincliney's plan, 451-56. 
plans for, submitted to the Conven- 
tion. 235-6. 
Randolph's plan, 424-26. 
ratification of, by states, 244-48, 625. 
resolution of Congress submitting 

to states, 244. 
Sherman's notes on plan, 281-82. 
Constitutional Convention, call of An- 
napolis Convention for, 231. 
call of Congress for, 232. 
procesdings of, 233-44. 
Constitutional Law, definition of, 1. 

discussion of nature of, 1-2. 
Contracts, obligation of, can not be 
impaired, 506-7. 
corporate charters are, 506. 
Consuls, appointment of, .525-6. 
Cooke, John Esten, on George Mason, 

414. 
Cooley, Thomas M., on Federalists in 

1803, 562. 
Copyrights, how granted, duration of, 

498. 
Counterfeiting Money, penalty for, 498. 
Council, Governors", by whom ap- 
pointed, 17. 
Courts of the United States, 528-29. 
Crimes, trial for, where must be held, 
532. 
protection of citizens in trial for, 
488, 532, 34,. 35, 42-5. 
Critical Period of American history, 

223-24. 
Curtis, George Ticknor, on U. S. from 
1783 to 1789, 228. 

Dale, Governor, 5. 

Dane, Nathan, opposition to the Con- 
stituUon, 232, 44. 

Dartmouth College, establishment of, 
25. 

Davie, William R., biographical sketch 
of, 438. 

Dayton, .Jonathan, biographical sketch 
of, 305. 

Debts of the United States, 538. 

in aid of Rebellion, validity of, 548. 

Declaration of Independence, Appen- 
dix, 566-69. 
narrowness of vote for, 45. 
opposition to, 42, 44. 45, 48, 70, 82, 
110, 116, 119, 138-9, 142, 144, 
157-8-9, 162, 184, 187, 269, 320, 
333, 344, 863, 380-1-2, 419, 461-2. 



signers of, biographical sketches, 

48-207. 
Delaware, address of Assembly of to 

the King, 143. 
Delaware, Lord, powers of, as Gover- 
nor, 5. 
Dickinson, John, biographical sketch 

of, 378. 
Chairman Committee on Articles of 

Confederation, 208. 
on Government, 239. 
Direct taxes, how laid, 483-4, 504. 
Disabilities of Members of Congress, 

491-3. 
Due process of law, definition of, 

543-4. 
Dutch patroons, 5. 
Duties, what are, and how impos-jd, 

495. 

Education in the Colonies, 21-6. 
Efforts for union, 27-32. 
Election of President, discussion of, 
509-10, 519-22. 
manner of, 512-19. 
of oflicers of House and Senate, 

485-87. 
of Representatives, 482-5. 
of Senators, 486. 
Electoral College, what is, 509-12. 
Electoral Commission of 1876, 520-21. 
Electoral vote, how cast and counted, 

513-19. 
Electors, Presidential, how chosen, 
509. 
discussion of method of choosing, 

519-22. 
powers of, 521. 
Ellery, William, biographical sketch of, 

97. 
Ellsworth, Oliver, biographical sketch 
of, 264. 
comments of, on the people, 240. 
on Roger Sherman, 278. 
England and France, conflicting claims 
of, 13. 
treaty of peace between, 14. 
English people, friendship of, 32. 
Enter, and clear, meaning of, 505. 
not required in inter-state commerce, 
504-5. 
Excises, what are, and how laid, 495. 
Executive Department, 508. 
Executive Departments, dates of es- 
tablishment of, 551. 
heads of and duties of, 651-54. 
members of, 1789-1909, 626-27. 
opinions of oflicers of, 525. 
Exports, no duties can be imposed 

upon, 504. 
Ex Post Facto Law, what is, prohibi- 
tion of, 503-4. 

Federalist, extract from, on Constitu- 
tional law, 2. 
on election of President, 510. 

Few, William, biographical sketch of, 
469. 

Field, Justice Stephen J., on Oliver 
Ellsworth, 266. 

Fines, excessive, prohibited, 545. 

First Constitution written in America, 
7. 



636 



INDEX 



First Continental Congress, 40. 
First efiEort lor union, 27. 
First Legislature in America, 4. 
First newspaper, 25. 
First publication, 24. 
First Resolution of the Constitutional 
Convention, 236. 
of the Committee of Detail, 236. 
Fiske, .John, on Abraham Baldwin, 
467. 
critical period of American history, 

223-4. 
on the Albany plan for union, 28-9. 
Fitzsimmons, Thomas, biographical 

sketch of, 325. 
Floyd, William, biographical sketch of, 

105. 
Flowers of States, 618-23. 
Framers of the Constitution, bio- 
graphical sketches of, 249-476. 
Franklin, Benjamin, biographical sketch 
of, 326. 
at the close of the Convention, 

243-4. 
comments on Independence, 42. 
on Independence prior to 1776, 59. 
on opening the Convention with 

prayer, 338-9. 
on signing the Constitution, 241-3. 
joke with coin, 195. 
plan of union at Albany convention, 

28. 
on signing the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 43. 
Freedom of press, religion and speech, 

540-41. 
Free schools established, 24. 
French and Indian Wars, benefits and 

influence of, 15, 16. 
French Colonists, explorations of, 13. 

hostility of, to other colonies, 14. 
Fronde, James Anthony, comments on 

the Constitution, 474-5. 
Fugitives from Justice, extradition of, 
535. 

Gage. Governor, proclamation as to 
Samuel Adams and John Hancock, 
69. 
Georgia, early government and settle- 
ment of, 11. 
ratified constitution unanimously, 
246. 472. 
Gerry, Elbridge, biographical sketch of, 
254. 
comments of on the people, 239. 
opposes ratification of Constitution 
by Massachusetts, 245. 
Gilman, Nicholas, biographical sketch 

of, 252. 
Gladstone, William E., on the Consti- 
tution, 474. 
Gold and silver, legal tender, 501, 506. 
Gorham, Nathaniel, biographical sketch 
of, 261. 
President of Continental Congress, 
42. 
Government, Colonial, 3-12. 

Federal, of delegated powers, 546. 
State, of reserved powers, 546. 
Governors of Colonies, how appointed, 
powers of, 411. 
arbitrary rule of, 8-9, 11. 



Grand Model of Locke and Shaftes- 
bury, 10. 

Greenbacks, legal tender, 501-02. 

Greene, Gen. Nathaniel, gift to by 
Elizabeth Steele, 214. 
on John Rutledge, 463. 

Griffin, Cyrus, President of Continen- 
tal Congress, 42. 

Gwinnett, Button, biographical sketch 
of, 202. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 

Habeas Corpus, writ of, 503. 

Hall, Lyman, biographical sketch of, 

203. 
Hamilton, Alexander, biographical 
sketch of, 289. 
efforts for the Constitution, 224. 
letter to John Jay on Presidential 

Electors, 521. 
on Government, 240. 
on the Louisiana purchase, 563. 
on the people, 245. 
on the plan submitted to the Con- 
vention, 236. 
work at the Annapolis Convention, 
231. 
Hancock, John, biographical sketch of, 

50. 
Hancock, John, President of the Conti- 
nental Congress, 42. 
as to ratification of the Constitution, 
245. 
Hanson, John, President of Continen- 
tal Congress, 42. 
Harrison, Benjamin, biographical 

sketch of, 181. 
Hart, John, biographical sketch of, 

130. 
Harvard College established, 24. 
Henry, Patrick, on the Preamble of 
The Constitution, 477. 
on John Rutledge, 460. 
on Roger Sherman and George Ma- 
son, 278. 
on Washington, 220. 
opposes ratification of the Constitu- 
tion, 245. 
refuses to attend the Convention, 
249. 
Hewes, Joseph, biographical sketch of, 
189. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 
Heyward, Thomas, Jr., biographical 

sketch of, 196. 
High seas, crimes and felonies on, 499. 
Hildreth, Richard, on the authority 
and powers of the Constitutional 
Convention, 233. 
on .John Dickinson, 381. 
Hooper, William, biographical sketch 
of, 188. 
tribute to Washington, 431-32. 
Hopkins, Stephen, biographical sketch 
of, 92. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 
Hopkinson, Francis, biographical sketch 
of, 128. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 



INDEX 



637 



House of Representatives, 482-85. 
chooses its speaker and other offi- 
cers, 485. 
has sole power of impeachment, 485. 
of whom composed, 482-83. 
qualifications of electors for mem- 
bers of, 482. 
qualifications of members of, 482, 
who are eligible to, 482. 
Speakers of, 1789 to 1909, 629-30. 
Houstoun, William, biographical sketch 

of, 471. 
Houston, William Churchill, biograph- 
ical sketch of, 313. 
Huguenots, 26. 

Huntington, Samuel, biographical 
sketch of, 99. 
President of Continental Congress, 
42. 
Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, 23. 

Immunities of Citizens, 534-35. 
Impeachment, definition of, 485-86. 
judgment in case of, 488-89. 
House sole power to impeach, 485. 
no bar to prosecution for indictable 

offense, 489. 
of President and civil oflScers, 528. 
Senate sole tribunal for trial in case 

of, 488. 
who are liable to, 485-86. 
procedure in, 485-86, 88. 
Implied powers, conferred on Congress, 

501-02. 
Imposts, how laid, 495. 
Independence, Declaration of. Appen- 
dix, 566. 
account of the writing of, 171-72. 
committee to prepare Declaration of, 

45. 
not at first desired. See citations 
under Declaration of Independ- 
ence, 
passed by one vote, 45, 137. 
Indians, not taxed, not counted in rep- 
resentation, 483-84. 
wards of the Nation, 497. 
Indictment, 543. 
Ingersoll, Jared, biographical sketch 

of, 340. 
Inspection laws, 507. 

states can impose duties to sustain, 
507. 
Inter-state commerce, 496-97. 
Jay, John, motto of as to the people, 
239. 
President of the Continental Con- 
gress, 42. 
on independence prior to 1776, 42-43. 
efforts for the Constitution, 246. 
indorsement on Hamilton's letter, 

521-22. 

Jefferson, Thomas, biographical sketch 
of, 169. 
on independence prior to 1776, 43. 
on slavery, 173, 484. 
on Alexander Hamilton, 298, 479. 
on John Adams, 82. 
on Roger Sherman, 278. 
on Benjamin Franklin, 336. 
on John Dickinson, 388. 
on George Wythe, 435-36. 



letter concerning the framing of the 
Constitution, 448. 
Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas, bio- 
graphical sketch of, 392. 
Johnson, Richard Malcolm, tribute to 

Abraham Baldwin, 468. 
Johnson, William Samuel, biographical 
sketch of, 268. 
on nature of the Constitution, 477- 

78. 
member of the Committee on Style 
and Arrangement, 237-476-80. 
Journal of each House, 491. 

01 the Constitutional Convention, 

235. 
of the Continental Congress, last 
entry in, 211. 
Judges of the State Courts, how bound 

by the Constitution, 538. 
Judges of the United States Courts, 
how appointed, terms of, 525-26- 
28. 
Judgments in impeachments, 488-89. 

in treason, 533. 
Judicial Department, 528. 
Judicial power, 530-31. 
Jurisdiction, original, what is, 532. 

of U. S. Courts, 530-32. 
Jury, trial by, importance and pres- 
ervation of, 488, 532, 543-5. 
Kennison, Father, last survivor of 

"Boston Tea Party," 71-72. 
Kent, Chancellor, on General Schuyler, 

299. 
King, Rufus, biographical sketch of, 

261. 
King, Rufus, member of Committee on 
Style and Arrangement, 237, 476- 
80. 
opposes Constitutional Convention, 

232. 
favors ratification of Constitution, 
244. 
King's College, established, 25. 
La Fayette, on the American soldier, 
215. 
relief of by Gouverneur Morris, 348. 
Lands, claims for under different 
grants, 531. 
public disposal of, 536. 
Langdon, John, biographical sketch of, 

253. 
Lansing, John, biographical sketch of, 

301. 
Laurens, Henry, President Continental 

Congress, 42. 
Laws, how passed by Congress, 493-94. 
approval by President, 493-94. 
how passed over Presidents' voto, 

493-94. 
to raise revenue, where to originate, 
493. 
Lee, Francis Lightfoot, biographical 

sketch of, 186. 
Lee, "Light Horse Harry," efforts for 

the Constitution, 244. 
Lee, Richard Henry, biographical 
sketch of, 164. 
opposes the Constitution, 244-45. 
proposes the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 45. 
President of the Continental Con- 
gress, 42. 



638 



INDEX 



Legislation, long experience of the Col- 
onies in, 3. 
Congress has exclusive, over seat of 
Government, 500-01. 
Legislative department, pov^ers of, 

482-501. 
Legislative powers, where and how 

vested, 482. 
Legislatures established in Virginia, 4. 
Connecticut, 7. 
Delaware, 9. 
Georgia, 11. 
Maryland, 10. 
Massachusetts, 6, 7. 
New Hampshire, 7. 
New Jersey, 9. 
New York, 5. 

North and South Carolina, 11. 
Pennsylvania, 10. 
Rhode Island, 8. 
Lewis, Francis, biographical sketch of, 

111. 
Lincoln, Abraham, on the Union, 43. 
Livingston, Philip, biographical sketch 

of, 108. 
Livingston, Robert R., member of Com- 
mittee on Articles of Confedera- 
tion, 208. 
Livingston, William, biographical sketch 

of, 314. 
Locke, John, efforts to unite Colonies, 
27. 
grand model of Constitution by, 10. 
London Company, 6. 
Louisiana Purchase, 563. 
Lynch, Thomas, Jr., biographical 

sketch of, 198. 
Macon, Nathaniel, on Roger Sherman, 

278. 
Mackintosh, Sir James, on the Consti- 
tution, 561. 
Madison, James, biographical sketch 
of, 397. 
on the Pramers of the Constitution, 

472-73. 
on independence prior to 1776, 43. 
on oppressions by the majority, 240. 
notes of on the Convention, 235. 
on closing of the Convention, 243-44. 
support of Constitution in Conti- 
nental Congress, 244. 
Madison, Mrs. Dolly, saves portrait of 
Washington and original Declara- 
tion of Independence, 405. 
Magna Charta, 539. 
Maine, Sir Henry, on decadence of 

Democracy, 225. 
Maine, State of, denied admission to 
United Colonies of New England, 
27. 
Manufacturing in the Colonies prohib- 
ited, 34. 
Marque and Reprisal, letters of, 499. 

states prohibited from issuing, 506. 
Marshall, John, on period from 1783 to 
1789, 224. 
efforts for the Constitution, 245. 
interpretation of the Constitution, 

475. 
on opponents of the Constitution, 
244. 
Martin, Alexander, biographical sketch 
of, 440. 



Martin, Luther, biographical sketch of, 

392. 
Maryland, settlement and government 

of, 9-10. 
Mason, George, biographical sketch of, 
406. 
Bill of Rights drawn by, 410-11. 
on danger of our government, 417. 
on slavery, 415. 

tributes to by Theodoric Bland, Hugh 
Blair Grigsby, Henry Lee, William 
C. Rives, 413-14. 
Massachusetts, settlement and govern- 
ment of, 6-7. 
McClurg, James, biographical sketch of, 

418. 
McHenry, James, biographical sketch 

of, 393. 
McKean, Thomas, biographical sketch 
of, 146. 
President of Continental Congress, 
42. 
Mercer, John Francis, biographical 

sketch of, 395. 
Mercer, Margaret, philanthropy of, 396. 
Meeting of Congress, 489-90. 
Message of the President, 527-28. 
Middleton, Arthur, biographical sketch 

of, 200. 
Middleton, Henry, President Conti- 
nental Congress, 42. 
Mifflin, Thomas, biographical sketch of, 
341. 
address on Washington resigning as 

Commander-in-Chief, 219-20. 
President of the Continental Con- 
gress, 42. 
"Millions for defence, not one cent for 

tribute," 458. 
Militia, to be maintained by the States, 
541-42. 
how organized, armed and dis- 
ciplined, 500. 
Money, borrowing of, by the U. S., 
495. 
coining of, 497-98. 
counterfeiting of, 498. 
how drawn from the Treasury, 505. 
account of expenditure of, must be 
published, 505. 
Morris, Gouverneur, biographical sketch 
of, 343. , 
member of Committee on Style and 

Arrangement, 237, 476-80. 
on a life Senate, 240. 
Morris, Lewis, biographical sketch of, 

112. 
Morris, Robert, biographical sketch of, 
351. 
to James Wilson, 362. 
Morton, John, biographical sketch of, 
137. 
vote decides Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 45. 
Mottos of States, 618-23. 
National Bank notes, not legal tender, 

501-02. 
Naturalization, regulated by National 

Government, 497. 
Navy, appropriation for, 500. 
Nelson, Thomas, Jr., biographical 
sketch of, 183. 



INDEX 



639 



member of Committee on Articles of 
Coufederatiou, 208. 
New Hampshire, government of, 7. 
first newspaper in, 25. 
first legislature in, 7. 
New Jersey, first settlers of, 9. 
public schools in, 25. 
by whom named, 9. 
refusal to pay quota of debt of the 
Revolution, 227. 
New York, by whom settled, 5. 
legislatures in, 5-6. 
refusal to amend Articles of Con- 
federation, 227. 
battle for the Constitution in, 246. 
New States, how admitted, 535-36. 
Nicknames of States, 218-23. 
Nobility, titles of prohibited, 505. 
North Carolina, government of, 10. 
Northwest Territory, 229. 
Oath, of the President, 525. 

of other oflScers of the United States, 

538-39. 
of officers of the states, 538-39. 
Obligation of Contracts, can not be 

impaired, 506-07. 
Oglethorpe, James, 11. 
Officers of House and Senate, how 

chosen, 485, 487-88. 
Offices, holding of, by members of 

Congress prqhibited, 492-93. 
Origin of names of States, 618-23. 
Paca, William, biographical sketch of, 

157. 
Paine, Robert Treat, biographical 

sketch of, 90. 
Paine, Thomas, efforts for the Consti- 
tution, 225. 
Pardons, granting of, 525-26. 
Patents and copyrights, 498. 
Paterson, William, biographical sketch 
of, .315. 
plan for Constitution in Convention, 
318-19. 
Patroons, 5. 

Pcnn Charter School, 25. 
Penn, John, biographical sketch of, 

192. 
Penn, William, liberal government of, 
10. 
proposal for Congress of the Colo- 
nies, 28. 
Pennsylvania, University of, 25. 

government of, 10. 
People, the, consideration for in the 
Constitution, 542-46. 
early distrust, of, 239-40. 
growth of power of, 240-41, 480-81. 
privileges and immunities of, 534- 

35. 
rights of, 542-46. 

security against arrest and search 
of, 542-43, 
Personal liberty, 542-43. 
Personal security, 542-46. 
Pierce, William, biographical sketch 

of, 472. 
Pilgrims, compact of government by, 6. 
Pinckney, Charles, biographical sketch 
of, 445. 
plan of Constitution submitted by, 
451-56. 



Pinckney, Charles Cotsworth, bio- 
graphical sketch of, 457. 
tribute of Theodore Roosevelt to, 
458. 
Piracies and felonies on the high seas, 

499. 
Pitt, William, on the oppressions of 

the Colonies, 34. 
Plans for the Constitution : 
Hamilton's, 360-61. 
Patersons, 318-19. 
Pinckney's, 451-56. 
Randolph's, 424-26. 
Sherman's notes for, 281-82. 
Population of States in 1900, 618-23. 
Postmaster General, department and 

duties of, 553-54. 
Post offices and post roads, 498. 
Powers of Congress, those expressly 
granted, 494-502. 
those expressly denied, 502-08. 
Powers of the President, 525-27. 
Powers reserved to the states, 546. 

denied to the states, 506-08. 
Powers reserved to the people, 546. 
Preamble of the Constitution, discus- 
sion of, 476-82. 
President, the, appointments by, 525- 
26. 
Cabinet established by Washington, 

550. 
members of 1789 to 1909, 626-28. 
discussion of method of election of, 

509-22. 
duties of, 527-28. 

election of, how conducted, 509-19. 
electors of, how chosen, 509. 
election of 1873, vote of electors, 

520. 
powers of, 525-28. 
qualiflcalions of, 522-23. 
tenth election of, contest in, 520. 
third election of, contest in, 511. 
succession, how provided for, 524. 
Presidents, dates of birth, marriage, 
election, etc., 615-17. 
of the Continental Congress, 41-2. 
Presidents of Senate from 1789 to 

1909. 628-629. 
President's cabinet, establishment, du- 
ties, etc., 550-51. 
members of cabinet from 1789 to 
1909, 626-28. 
Princeton College, established, 25. 
Privileges and immunities of citizens, 

534-35. 
Privileges of ^lembers of Congress, 

491-92. 
Property qualifications of officers in 
the Colonies, 11. 
of voters therein, 11. 
Property, private, how taken for pub- 
lic use, 543-44. 
if injured in riot owner can recover 
for, 544. 
Proprietary Colonies, 17. 
Provincial or Royal Colonies, system 

of government in, 17. 
Public debts of the United States, 547. 
Public lands in the United States, 

553. 
Punishments, cruel and unusual, pro- 
hibited, 545. 



640 



INDEX 



Puritans, democratic government of, 
6-7. 
ministers, powers of, 23. 
intolerance and excellences of, 23-24. 
Quakers, oppressions of, 11, 12, 23. 
Qualifications, of President and Vice- 
President, 522-23. 
of Representatives, 483. 
of Senators, 487. 

of voters, regulated by the states, 
546-48. 
Quartering of soldiers in private houses 

prohibited, 542. 
Quincy, Josiah, on Samuel Adams, 71. 
Quorum, what constitutes in each 

House of Congress, 490. 
Ramsay, Dr., tribute to John Rutledge, 

465. 
Randolph, Edmund, biographical sketch 
of, 419. 
on Democracy, 239. 
part in the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 235. 
plan for Constitution submitted by, 

424-26. 
word, "slavery," stricken from Con- 
stitution on motion of, 421. 
Randolph, Peyton, President of the 

Continental Congress, 41. 
Ratification of the Constitution, pro- 
vision in for, 539. 
by original 13 states, 244-48, 625. 
Read, George, biographical sketch of, 

389. 
Rebellion, debts in aid of invalid, 547- 

48. 
Religion and education in the Colo- 
nies, 21. 
Religion and free speech, guarantee 

of, 541-42. 
Religious test for office prohibited, 

538-39. 
Representatives,' apportionment of, 
483-84, 547. 
each state must have one, 483-84. 
electors of. qualifications for, 482-83. 
House of, chooses ofiicers, 485. 
need not be residents of districts 

elected for, 483. 
privileges of, 491-92. 
qualifications of, 483. 
sole power of impeachment, 485. 
vacancies of, how filled, 484-85. 
Reprieves, by whom granted, 525-26. 
Republican government, guaranteed 

each state, 536-37. 
Requisitions for fugitives from justice, 

535. 
Resolutions of Convention submitting 
Constitution to Congress, 597-98. 
Resolutions of Congress of receipt of 

same, 245, 599. 
Retroactive legislation allowed in civil 

affairs, 504. 
Revenue, where bills for must origi- 
nate, 493. 
Revere, Paul, work for the Constitu- 
tion, 245-46. 
Review, historical, of government in 

the Colonies and States, 36. 
Revolution, the, 214. 
Revolution, causes of, 33. 



Rhode Island, Charter of, government 

of, 7-8. 
no part in the Convention, 234. 
denied admission to United Colonies 
of New England, 27. 
Rights of citizens, to bear arms, 541- 
42. 
of speedy trial, and by jury, 544-45. 
Rights of the citizen, to have counsel 
in trials for crime, 544-45. 
as to search of, 542-43. 
as to sufi'rage, 546-48. 
Rights of the people, 545. 
Rights of the states, 546. 
Robinson, Speaker of Virginia As- 
sembly, to Washington, 429. 
Rodney, Caesar, biographical sketch of, 

142. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, on Gouverneur 
Morris, 350. 
on Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 
458. 
Ross, George, biographical sketch of, 

141. 
Royal Colonies, 17. 
Ruggles, Timothy, 29. 
Rush, Benjamin, biographical sketch 
of, 133. 
on Francis Hopkinson, 129. 
Rutgers College founded, 25. 
Rutledge, Edward, biographical sketch 
of, 194. 
member of Committee on Articles 
of Confederation, 208. 
Rutledge, John, biographical sketch of, 

459. 
Salzburgers, settlement of, 25. 
Sanderson, comments on 
Samuel Adams, 74-76. 
Charles Carroll, 160. 
Abraham Clark, 131, 132. 
George Clymer, 322-24. 
William Floyd, 107-08. 
John Hancock, 55. 
Joseph Hewes, 192. 
Stephen Hopkins, 96-97. 
Thomas Jefferson, 179-80, 
Thomas McKean, 153. 
Robert Morris, 358. 
Thomas Nelson, Jr., 186. 
John Penn, 193-94. 
Caesar Rodney, 145. 
Roger Sherman, 283-85. 
George Walton, 207. 
James Wilson, 366-67. 
John Witherspoon, 121-22. 
Schools, in the several Colonies, 21-26. 
Schuyler, Gen. Philip, 299. 
Schools, free, foundation of, 24. 
Secretary of State, department and 

duties of, 551-52. 
Secretaries of State, 1789 to 1909, 

615. 
Secretary of the Treasury, department 

and duties of, 552. 
Secretary of War, department and du- 
ties of, 552-53. 
Secretary of the Navy, department and 

duties of, 553. 
Secretary of the Interior, department 

and duties of, 553. 
Secretary of Agriculture, department 
and duties of, 554. 



INDEX 



641 



Secretary of Commerce, department 

and duties of, 554. 
Secretaries, 1789-1909, 626-28. 
Senate, composed of, 48t3. 

can not originate bills to raise reve- 
nue, 493. 
chooses own officers, 487-88. 
qualitications of members of, 487. 
tries all impeachments, 488. 
Presidents of, 1789 to 1909, 628-29. 
Senators, classification of, 486-7. 

terms of, 486. 
Shay's rebellion, 227. 
Sherman, Roger, biographical ' sketch 
of, 271. 
member of Committee on Articles of 
Confederation, 208. 
Signers of the Constitution, 596-97. 
of the Articles of Confederation, 
577-78. 
Signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 569-70. 
Biographical sketches of, 48-207. 
Silver, legal tender, 501, 506. 
Slavery prohibited, 546. 
standing concerning by 
Abraham Baldwin. 468. 
John Dickinson, 385. 
Oliver Ellsworth, 265. 
Benjamin Franklin, 339. 
Thomas Jefferson, 173, 484. 
Rufus King, 262. 
Richard Henry Lee, 165. 
William Livingston, 315. 
George Mason, 415. 
Edmund Randolph, 421. 
George Wythe, 435. 
Smith, James, biographical sketch of, 

138 
Soldiers, quartering of, prohibited, 542. 
South Carolina, settlement of, govern- 
ment in, 10. 
Sovereignty of states, 534, 535-37. 
Spaight, Richard Dobbs, biographical 

sketch of, 441. 
Speaker of House of Representatives, 
485. 
sole power to appoint committees, 

490-91. 
from 1789 to 1909, 629-630. 
Stamp Act Congress, 29. 
States' rights, natural growth of idea 

of, 19, 29, 31, 36, 222-23. 
States, areas of, 618-23. 
Capitals of, 618-23. 
Flowers of, 618-23. 
Mottos of, 618-23. 
Names, origin of, 618-23. 
Nicknames of, 618-23. 
Population, 1900, 618-23. 
Settled, when and by whom, 618-23. 
Admission into the Union, 625. 
Ratilioation of the Constitution by, 

244-48, 625. 
rights of, 546. 
powers denied to, 506-08. 
powers reserved to, 546. 
new, how admitted, 535-36. 
Republican government guaranteed 

in, 536-37. 
records, how proved and effect of, 
534. 



St. Clair, Arthur, President of the Con- 
tinental Congress, 42. 
Steele, Elizabeth, aid to General 

Greene, 214. 
Stockton, Richard, biographical sketch 

of, 113. 
Stone, Thomas, biographical sketch of, 

158. 
Stone, Thomas, member of Committee 
on Articles of Confederation, 208. 
Story, Justice Joseph, on repudiation, 

1783 to 1789, 227. 
Strong, Caleb, biographical sketch of, 

263. 
Stuyvesant, Governor Peter, 5. 
Suffrage, right of, 497, 548-49. 
Summary of Colonial Government, 17- 

20. 
Supreme Court, Judges of, how ap- 
pointed, 525. 
jurisdiction of, 530-32. 
Chief Justice of, 615. 
Supreme Laws, defined, 538. 
Swedes, settlement by, 9. 
Swiss, settlements by, 25. 
Taylor, George, biographical sketch of, 

140. 
Taylor, Gen. Richard, on George Ma- 
son, 414. 
Taxes, direct, how laid, 483-84. 
not allowed on exports, 504. 
Tender, Legal, what is, 501, 506. 
Thanksgiving, origin of, 23. 
Thayer, Dr., on Josiah Bartlett, 58. 
Thornton, Matthew, biographical sketch 

of, 62. 
Titles of nobility prohibited, 505. 
Tonnage, what is, 507. 
Treason, what is, 533. 

as to confessions of, 533. 
witnesses to convict for, and pun- 
ishment of, 533. 
Treaty of Peace between France and 
i^ngland, 14. 
between Great Britain and the U. S., 
46. 
Treaties of the United States, part of 
the supreme law of the land, 538. 
Trials for Crimes, where must be had, 
532. 
must be speedy and by jury, 544. 
in cases of impeachment, 488-89. 
Union, efforts for, 27-32. 

first of the Colonies, 27-32. 
United Colonies of New England, 27. 
United States, date of official name, 
208. 
National character of, 470, 482, 492, 
538. 
University of Pennsylvania, 25. 
Vacancies, of Presidents' office, how 
filled, 524. 
of Senator's, how filled, 486-87. 
of Representative's, how filled, 484- 
85. 
Vane, Governor, 23. 
Vattel, on Constitution, 2. 
Veto, how made and overcome, 493-94, 
Vice-President, how elected, 512. 
President of the Senate, 487. 
from 1789 to 1909, 615. 
when entitled to vote, 487. 



642 



INDEX 



qualifications of, 522-23. 
Vice-Presidents of the United States, 

615. 
Virginia, how settled and governed, 4, 
22. 

delegates to Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 232. 

education in, 22-23. 
Voltaire, tribute to Benjamin Franklin, 
336. 

tribute to John Dickinson, 387. 
Voters, qualification of, determined by 
the states, 497-548. 

National Government does not make, 
497. 

discrimination as to, prohibited by 
the Constitution, 548. 
Walton, George, biographical sketch of, 

205. 
War, appropriation for, 499. 

how declared, 499. 
Warren, General, prophetic farewell to 

Elbridge Gerry, 255. 
Washington, George, address to Con- 
stitutional Convention, 235-241. 

address on opening the Constitution- 
al Convention, 235. 

biographical sketch of, 426. 

letter of farewell as President, 602. 

letter to the governors of the thir- 
teen states, 579. 

letter to Hamilton and Jefferson, 
295. 

letter of, as President of the Con- 
vention, 598. 

letter of, while in the Convention, 
241. 

on the army and country during the 
revolution, 354-55. 

on the condition of the country from 
1783 to 1787, 227-228. 

on Alexander Hamilton, 292. 

on heroism of the army, 215. 



on Independence prior to 1T76, 43. 
on ratification of the Constitution, 

247. 
remarks to members of the Alexan- 
dria convention, 230. 
sketch of character of, 216. 
tribute to Robert Morris, 355. 
on John Rutledge, 460. 
Bushrod Washington, 372. 
Washington and Lee College, 23. 
Webster, Daniel, on Alexander Hamil- 
ton 294 299. 
on Oliver Ellsworth, 266. 
Webster, Noah, on the need of a na- 
tional government, 225. 
Webster, Pelatiah, on revising Articles 

of Confederation, 225. 
Weights and Measures, fixed by Con- 
gress, 497-98. 
Whipple, William, biographical sketch 

of, 58. 
William and Mary, College of, 23. 
Williams, Roger, 28. 
Williams, William, biographical sketch 

of, 100. 
Williams College, 101. 
Williamson, Hugh, biographical sketch 

of, 442. 
Wilson, James, biographical sketch of, 
360. 
on the Constitution, 478. 
on the people, 240. 
Witherspoon, John, biographical sketch 

of, 117. 
Wolcott, Oliver, biographical sketch of, 

103. 
Women allowed to vote in New Jer- 
sey, 11. 
Wythe, George, biographical sketch of, 

432. 
Yale College, founding of, 24. 
Yates, Robert, biographical sketch of, 

302. 
Yeardley, Sir George, 4. 



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